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Functional Diversity and Traits Assembly Patterns of Benthic Macrofaunal Communities in the Southern North Sea

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Book cover Towards an Interdisciplinary Approach in Earth System Science

Part of the book series: Springer Earth System Sciences ((SPRINGEREARTH))

Abstract

The study of ecosystem functioning—the fluxes of energy and material through biotic and abiotic components of an ecosystem—is becoming increasingly important in benthic ecological research. We investigated the functional structure of macrozoobenthic communities at four long-term sampling sites in the southern North Sea using biological traits assigned to life history, morphological and behavioural characteristics. The “typical” species of the macrofaunal assemblages at the sampling sites was characterized by small to medium body size, infaunal burrowing life style, deposit feeding habit, omnivory diet type, short to medium life span, gonochoristic sexual differentiation, <2 years age at maturity, high fecundity, and planktotrophic development mode. Functional diversity differed significantly among the four sites. As part of the present study, trait information for >330 macrofaunal taxa have been compiled in a comprehensive database.

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Acknowledgments

We are deeply indebted to all the persons who contributed in the sampling, sample sorting and taxonomic identification. We thank the crew of all research vessels especially “FS Heincke” and “FS Uthörn” for their help with sampling throughout the years. The authors are also grateful for the very valuable comments of three anonymous reviewers. MSh is funded by the Iranian Ministry of Sciences, Research and Technology. We gratefully acknowledge partial support through Earth System Sciences Research School (ESSReS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Am Handelshafen 12, 27570, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Mehdi Ghodrati Shojaei, Lars Gutow, Jennifer Dannheim, Hendrik Pehlke & Thomas Brey

  2. Department of Marine Biology, Faculty of Marine Science, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

    Mehdi Ghodrati Shojaei

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  1. Mehdi Ghodrati Shojaei
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  2. Lars Gutow
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Correspondence to Mehdi Ghodrati Shojaei .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Gerrit Lohmann

  2. Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Helge Meggers

  3. School of Engineering and Science, Jacobs University, Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Vikram Unnithan

  4. Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Dieter Wolf-Gladrow

  5. Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Justus Notholt

  6. Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Astrid Bracher

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Ghodrati Shojaei, M., Gutow, L., Dannheim, J., Pehlke, H., Brey, T. (2015). Functional Diversity and Traits Assembly Patterns of Benthic Macrofaunal Communities in the Southern North Sea. In: Lohmann, G., Meggers, H., Unnithan, V., Wolf-Gladrow, D., Notholt, J., Bracher, A. (eds) Towards an Interdisciplinary Approach in Earth System Science. Springer Earth System Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13865-7_20

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