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Temporal variation of several structure descriptors in animal-dominated benthic communities in two Mediterranean caves

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 May 2004

Ruth Martí
Affiliation:
Centre d'Estudis Avançats de Blanes, CSIC, Accés Cala Sant Francesc, 14, 17300 Blanes (Girona), Spain
Maria J. Uriz
Affiliation:
Centre d'Estudis Avançats de Blanes, CSIC, Accés Cala Sant Francesc, 14, 17300 Blanes (Girona), Spain
Enric Ballesteros
Affiliation:
Centre d'Estudis Avançats de Blanes, CSIC, Accés Cala Sant Francesc, 14, 17300 Blanes (Girona), Spain
Xavier Turon
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Biology, Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona, Diagonal Ave. 645, 08028 Barcelona, Spain

Abstract

The structural parameters of sponge-dominated benthic communities from two Mediterranean caves in two seasons, autumn (November) and spring (June) were compared. The percentage of species in common between communities in each cave was calculated as a rough estimate of the capacity of species dispersion in each cave. The Shannon diversity index and Kulczynski similarity index were calculated for each community. Moreover, we studied the spatial distribution, patchiness and interspecies contacts of the most abundant species. The value of α-diversity was quite constant among communities of the Cabrera cave but decreased from the external to the innermost community in the Medes cave. The Kulczynski similarity index was generally lower among samples of the Cabrera cave. The most abundant sponge species showed a predominantly clumped distribution, especially in the most internal communities of the two caves. The innermost community of the Medes cave had the highest number of patches. Finally, the study of contacts among species that were non-random (meaning species that were in contact with a given species significantly more or less frequently than expected) showed that they were very common in the two seasons and in all communities, indicating the importance of biotic associations among benthic species in cave assemblages.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2004 Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom

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