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Titel |
Natural variability in hard-bottom communities and possible drivers assessed by a time-series study in the SW Baltic Sea: know the noise to detect the change |
VerfasserIn |
M. Wahl, H.-H. Hinrichsen, A. Lehmann, M. Lenz |
Medientyp |
Artikel
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Sprache |
Englisch
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ISSN |
1726-4170
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Digitales Dokument |
URL |
Erschienen |
In: Biogeosciences ; 10, no. 7 ; Nr. 10, no. 7 (2013-07-30), S.5227-5242 |
Datensatznummer |
250018371
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Publikation (Nr.) |
copernicus.org/bg-10-5227-2013.pdf |
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Zusammenfassung |
In order to detect shifts in community structure and function associated with
global change, the natural background fluctuation in these traits must be
known. In a 6 yr study we characterized the composition of young benthic
communities at 7 sites along the 300 km coast of the Kiel and Lübeck
bights in the German Baltic Sea and we quantified their interannual variability of
taxonomic and functional composition.
Along the salinity gradient from NW to SE, the relative abundance of primary
producers decreased while that of heterotrophs increased. Along the same
gradient, annual productivity tended to increase. Taxonomic and functional
richness were higher in Kiel Bight as compared to Lübeck Bight. With
increasing species richness functional group richness showed saturation
indicating an increasing functional redundancy in species rich communities.
While taxonomic fluctuations between years were substantial, functionality
of the communities seem preserved in most cases. Environmental conditions
potentially driving these fluctuations are winter temperatures and current
regimes. We tentatively define a confidence range of natural variability in
taxonomic and functional composition a departure from which might help
identifying an ongoing regime shift driven by global change. In addition, we
propose to use RELATE, a statistical procedure in the PRIMER (Plymouth
Routines in Multivariate Ecological Research) package to
distinguish directional shifts in time ("signal") from natural temporal
fluctuations ("noise"). |
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