European Ocean Biodiversity Information System
[ report an error in this record ]basket (0): add | show Print this page
The near-bottom layer as an ecological boundary in marine ecosystems: diversity, taxonomic composition and community definitions
Dauvin, J.-C.; Vallet, C. (2006). The near-bottom layer as an ecological boundary in marine ecosystems: diversity, taxonomic composition and community definitions, in: Queiroga, H. et al. (Ed.) Marine biodiversity: patterns and processes, assessment, threats, management and conservation: Proceedings of the 38th European Marine Biology Symposium, held in Aveiro, Portugal, 8-12 September 2003. Developments in Hydrobiology, 183: pp. 49-58. dx.doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4697-9_5
In: Queiroga, H. et al. (2006). Marine biodiversity: patterns and processes, assessment, threats, management and conservation: Proceedings of the 38th European Marine Biology Symposium, held in Aveiro, Portugal, 8-12 September 2003. Developments in Hydrobiology, 183. Springer: Dordrecht. ISBN 1-4020-4321-X. XV, 353 pp. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4697-9
In: Dumont, H.J. (Ed.) Developments in Hydrobiology. Kluwer Academic/Springer: The Hague; London; Boston; Dordrecht. ISSN 0167-8418
Available in  Authors 
    Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee: Non-open access 233822 [ request ]
Document type: Conference paper
Keywords
    Clines > Ecoclines
    Layers > Boundary layers > Benthic boundary layer
    Marine/Coastal
Author keywords
    benthic boundary layer; near-bottom community; ecological boundary; ecocline
Authors  Top 
  • Dauvin, J.-C.
  • Vallet, C.
Abstract
    The near-bottom layer of the ocean represents a boundary between two oceanic biotopes (pelagial and benthal), and as a result, the animal populations living in this habitat belong to various diverse ecological groups. There is a profusion of terms to designate the organisms which live near the sea bottom, both in relation to their behaviour and to boundary-layer hydrodynamics. Do the fauna living above the sea bottom form a true community? Should the fauna in this habitat be considered as a true community or a mixed assemblage comprised of benthic and pelagic organism? Between 1988 and 1996, more than 500 suprabenthic hauls were taken with a modified Macer-GIROQ sledge at 15 sites in the English Channel and the Seine Estuary (5–70 m), at 13 sites on the southern edge of the Cap Ferret Canyon (Bay of Biscay, 350– 1100 m), and at 8 sites on the Atlantic seamounts south of the Azores (260–2235 m). This intensive sampling permitted the collection of more than several hundred species and will serve to facilitate discussion concerning the biodiversity of the fauna collected near the sea bottom. This paper proposes that in the estuary, the near-bottom layer is colonized by a mixed assemblage of both pelagic and benthic organisms, while in the coastal and in the bathyal zones, the response to the gradual extinction of light and the decreasing benthic resuspension at near-bottom depths leads to an ecocline.
All data in the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) is subject to the VLIZ privacy policy Top | Authors