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Green tides on inter- and subtidal sandy shores: differential impacts on infauna and flatfish

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

N. Quillien ,
M. C. Nordström ,
H. Le Bris ,
E. Bonsdorff  and
J. Grall
N. Quillien*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences de l'Environnement Marin, Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Plouzané, France Åbo Akademi University, Environmental and Marine Biology, Turku, Finland Observatoire Marin, Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer, Plouzané, France
M. C. Nordström
Affiliation:
Åbo Akademi University, Environmental and Marine Biology, Turku, Finland
H. Le Bris
Affiliation:
ESE, Ecology and Ecosystem Health, Agrocampus Ouest, INRA, Rennes, France
E. Bonsdorff
Affiliation:
Åbo Akademi University, Environmental and Marine Biology, Turku, Finland
J. Grall
Affiliation:
Observatoire Marin, Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer, Plouzané, France
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: N. Quillien, Laboratoire des Sciences de l'Environnement Marin, Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Plouzané, France email: nolwenn.quillien@gmail.com
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Abstract

Beach ecosystems extend from dune to offshore areas along most coasts, and provide essential services that are not provided by any other ecosystem. Indeed, sandy systems contain unique biodiversity and supply nursery and foraging areas for numerous commercially important marine species, such as flatfish. However, these systems are threatened by increasing anthropogenic pressure. Green tides (GT, i.e. accumulations of green opportunistic macroalgae) are a major human-induced threat to marine ecosystems, from inshore to nearshore. This eutrophication process greatly affects both benthic invertebrate communities and flatfish communities, within sheltered and non- or microtidal systems. However, the responses of dynamic open macrotidal sandy systems to eutrophication in the form of macroalgal mats are not yet fully understood. In particular, understanding the effects of GT on two connected biological compartments (infauna and flatfish) within two connected habitats (intertidal and subtidal) is crucial. Here, we set out to assess the influence of several environmental variables, including Ulva biomass, on the variability in infauna and flatfish communities in both the intertidal and the subtidal at four sites impacted or not by GT. In total, 110 biodiversity samples were analysed with classic and novel analytical approaches. Our results demonstrate that the presence of GT specifically impacts intertidal macroinvertebrate communities. However, small effects of GT on subtidal infauna communities, as well as on species-specific flatfish at both intertidal and subtidal, were still detectable. Our findings underline the vulnerability of highly dynamic ecosystems exposed to anthropogenic stress, in particular intertidal sandy shores.

Keywords

benthic infaunaflatfishinshorenearshoresandy sedimentsUlvaeutrophicationspace-time analysis
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 98 , Issue 4 , June 2018 , pp. 699 - 712
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2017 

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