The functional composition of the benthic invertebrate community of the Mondego estuary : insights within the functioning of this ecosystem

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Linden, Pieter van der
Publication Date: 2011
Format: Master thesis
Language: eng
Source: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
Download full: https://hdl.handle.net/10316/19928
Summary: Dissertação de mestrado em Ecologia, apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra
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spelling The functional composition of the benthic invertebrate community of the Mondego estuary : insights within the functioning of this ecosystemEstuário do Rio Mondego -- ecossistemaDissertação de mestrado em Ecologia, apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de CoimbraThe main aim of this study was to investigate the functional composition of the subtidal benthic invertebrate communities of the Mondego estuary and thus contributing to a better understanding of the response of these communities to the pressures within this type of ecosystem. We characterized the environmental conditions and investigated the spatial and seasonal distribution of the communities by means of traditional taxonomic analysis and BTA. Moreover, we investigated the relation between taxonomic and functional composition by comparing indices of taxonomic and functional diversity. Traditional taxonomic analysis highlighted spatial and seasonal variations of community composition (i.e., a general reduction of species richness, Shannon-Wiener diversity, and an increase of species density towards the upper parts of the estuary). BTA analysis highlighted the functional characteristics of the benthic community within the estuary and common features across species that have appeared or disappeared among seasons. Furthermore, BTA allowed to investigate interactions among traits (i.e., the strong influence of the trait ‘salinity preference’) and was used to calculate functional diversity (FD). Indices of taxonomic diversity (Shannon-Wiener index) and FD (RQE index) allowed to explore the relation between taxonomic and functional composition. This relation might potentially have indicated that the community at the upper most reaches of the estuary exhibits lower functional redundancy than the downstream assemblages. This study represents one of the first attempts to investigate the functional composition of the benthic invertebrate community in an estuarine environment by means of BTA. BTA in addition to traditional taxonomic analysis provided a more comprehensive understanding of the functioning of this ecosystem. Therefore, the inclusion of BTA is highly recommendable for estuarine ecological studies, but more research is needed to improve its effectiveness regarding the following issues: (i) the set of selected biological traits should be optimized towards the inclusion of more relevant ecological information. This objective can be achieved by improving the knowledge on single species biological traits, which is at present still fragmentary; (ii) the biological traits of species should be linked with the services these environments provide. This traitservice association will be a crucial step in ecosystem service monitoring and management.2011info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesishttps://hdl.handle.net/10316/19928https://hdl.handle.net/10316/19928engLINDEN, Pieter van der - The functional composition of the benthic invertebrate community of the Mondego estuary : insights within the functioning of this ecosystem. Coimbra : [s.n.], 2011Linden, Pieter van derinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessreponame:Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)instname:FCCN, serviços digitais da FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologiainstacron:RCAAP2022-01-20T17:48:33Zoai:estudogeral.uc.pt:10316/19928Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireinfo@rcaap.ptopendoar:https://opendoar.ac.uk/repository/71602025-05-29T05:17:07.782889Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP) - FCCN, serviços digitais da FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologiafalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv The functional composition of the benthic invertebrate community of the Mondego estuary : insights within the functioning of this ecosystem
title The functional composition of the benthic invertebrate community of the Mondego estuary : insights within the functioning of this ecosystem
spellingShingle The functional composition of the benthic invertebrate community of the Mondego estuary : insights within the functioning of this ecosystem
Linden, Pieter van der
Estuário do Rio Mondego -- ecossistema
title_short The functional composition of the benthic invertebrate community of the Mondego estuary : insights within the functioning of this ecosystem
title_full The functional composition of the benthic invertebrate community of the Mondego estuary : insights within the functioning of this ecosystem
title_fullStr The functional composition of the benthic invertebrate community of the Mondego estuary : insights within the functioning of this ecosystem
title_full_unstemmed The functional composition of the benthic invertebrate community of the Mondego estuary : insights within the functioning of this ecosystem
title_sort The functional composition of the benthic invertebrate community of the Mondego estuary : insights within the functioning of this ecosystem
author Linden, Pieter van der
author_facet Linden, Pieter van der
author_role author
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv Linden, Pieter van der
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv Estuário do Rio Mondego -- ecossistema
topic Estuário do Rio Mondego -- ecossistema
description Dissertação de mestrado em Ecologia, apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra
publishDate 2011
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2011
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis
format masterThesis
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/10316/19928
https://hdl.handle.net/10316/19928
url https://hdl.handle.net/10316/19928
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv LINDEN, Pieter van der - The functional composition of the benthic invertebrate community of the Mondego estuary : insights within the functioning of this ecosystem. Coimbra : [s.n.], 2011
dc.rights.driver.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
instname:FCCN, serviços digitais da FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
instacron:RCAAP
instname_str FCCN, serviços digitais da FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
instacron_str RCAAP
institution RCAAP
reponame_str Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
collection Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
repository.name.fl_str_mv Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP) - FCCN, serviços digitais da FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
repository.mail.fl_str_mv info@rcaap.pt
_version_ 1833602310475874304

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