An analysis of the importance of taxonomic level in the assessment of annelid communities in a Mexican lagoon

Abstract

Assessing taxonomic sufficiency (TS) is useful for developing rapid and reliable procedures in marine impact assessment and monitoring. The coastal lagoon Estero de Urias has been subjected to the effects of several anthropogenic activities (shrimp farms, a thermoelectric plant, a slaughterhouse, a fish processing factory, a harbor, and urban sewage) for several decades, thus it is a candidate for TS application. The characterization of this lagoon through the study of soft-bottom annelids has identified zones subjected to different degrees of organic pollution, which lead to the need for monitoring. TS involves the identification of taxa to higher taxonomic levels than species (e.g., genus or family) without losing statistically relevant information. This study investigated the degree to which reduced taxonomy can be used to detect anthropogenic effects in a lagoon through the analyses of published and unpublished data of polychaetes and oligochaetes. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) ordinations, pairwise Spearman correlation tests, “second-stage” MDS ordination, analysis of similarity (ANOSIM), and BIO-ENV analyses revealed that, in general, results obtained at species, genus, and family levels followed similar patterns. Analyses performed at the genus and family levels were as effective as those performed at the species level and followed similar trends to those found in previous studies. Therefore, further analyses using family-level data are recommended for monitoring and characterization of this tropical coastal lagoon.