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The body-size structure of macrobenthos changes predictably along gradients of hydrodynamic stress and organic enrichment

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Abstract

Body size is related to an extensive number of species traits and ecological processes and has therefore been suggested as an effective metric to assess community changes and ecosystem’s state. However, the applicability of body size as an ecological indicator in benthic environments has been hindered by the poor knowledge of the factors influencing the size spectra of organisms. By applying biological trait analysis (BTA) and generalized linear models to a species dataset collected in the German Wadden Sea (53°41′14′′ N, 7°14′19′′ E) between 1999 and 2012, we show that the size structure of the macrobenthic community changes predictably along environmental gradients. Specifically, body size increases with increasing current-induced shear stress and sediment organic matter content. In addition, the presence of oyster–mussel reefs in one of the sampling stations enhanced the survival of species belonging to the smallest size categories in habitats with high hydrodynamic energy. This was probably due to the local sheltering effects, which together with biodeposition also increased organic matter in the sediment, likely favoring large deposit feeders as well. Our results suggest that body size can be a useful trait for estimating effects of anthropogenic stressors, such as organic enrichment or alteration of hydrodynamic regime and could therefore be effectively included in current monitoring programs of intertidal macrobenthic communities.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Lower Saxony Water Management, Coastal Defence and Nature Conservation Agency and the National Park “Niedersächsisches Wattenmeer” for providing the data and Professor Dr Changsheng Chen, Dr Jianhua Qi and the MEDM research group in SMAST-University of Massachusetts Dartmouth for providing the FVCOM source codes and advisory help. We thank two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. This study was financed by fellowship to SD from the Hanse-Wissenschaftkolleg—Institute for Advanced Study, to which we are very grateful. HH and DH were financed by the Lower Saxony Ministry for Environment and Climate Protection and the Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture as part of the collaborative research project WiMo (“Wissenschaftliche Monitoringkonzepte für die Deutsche Bucht”). The contribution of Karsten Lettmann was partly supported by the KLIFF research project (“Climate impact and adaptation research in Lower Saxony” funded by the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony). The FVCOM model simulations were performed on the massive parallel computer clusters of The North-German Supercomputing Alliance (HLRN, Berlin/Hannover) and the DFG-funded High-Performance-Computing-Cluster (HPC-Cluster) located at the University of Oldenburg.

Conflict of interest

Serena Donadi, Britas Klemens Eriksson, Karsten Alexander Lettmann, Dorothee Hodapp, Jörg-Olaf Wolff and Helmut Hillebrand declare that they have no conflict of interest. All institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed.

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  1. Serena Donadi

    Present address: Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, Stockholm university, SE-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hanse-Wissenschaftkolleg - Institute for Advanced Study, Lehmkuhlenbusch 4, 27753, Delmenhorst, Germany

    Serena Donadi

  2. Department of Marine Benthic Ecology and Evolution, Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies (CEES), University of Groningen, P.O. Box 11103, 9700 CC, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Britas Klemens Eriksson

  3. Physical Oceanography, Institute for Chemistry and Biology of The Marine Environment (ICBM), University of Oldenburg, Carl-von-Ossietzky-Strasse 9-11, 26111, Oldenburg, Germany

    Karsten Alexander Lettmann & Jörg-Olaf Wolff

  4. Planktology Working Group, Institute for Chemistry and Biology of The Marine Environment (ICBM), University of Oldenburg, Carl-von-Ossietzky-Strasse 9-11, 26111, Oldenburg, Germany

    Dorothee Hodapp & Helmut Hillebrand

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Donadi, S., Eriksson, B.K., Lettmann, K.A. et al. The body-size structure of macrobenthos changes predictably along gradients of hydrodynamic stress and organic enrichment. Mar Biol 162, 675–685 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-015-2614-z

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