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Abstract
The syllids inhabiting 12 hard bottom macrobenthic habitats were studied. A total of 38 species belonging to 19 genera were identified. Differences in density, species richness, and diversity among habitats were analysed, as well as the relationships between these ecological parameters and depth range, slope and in-bay/out-bay gradient. The effect of environmental variables on syllid distribution was studied using canonical ordination. A high faunistic homogeneity has been found, since all biotopes were dominated by a low number of eurytopic species (Syllis armillaris, S. gracilis and S. variegata). Habitat complexity, determined by physical disturbance, is the main structuring factor in syllid populations. Biotopes with the highest structural complexity displayed a high number of companion species increasing ecological indices and denoting a well-structured habitat. On the other hand, communities such as in upper intertidal habitats, mainly controlled by physical environmental variables, showed a poorer syllid fauna, dominated by ubiquitious species and a few stenotopic species well-adapted to those environments. However, this is not the case in some other intertidal biotopes, such as in Corallina, whose tangled structure prevents drying and provides shelter from predation, allowing a richer and more diverse syllid fauna.
Highlights
The family Syllidae is one of the dominant taxa in terms of species number and abundance in coastal assemblages (San Martín, 1984, 2003; Serrano, 2002; Çinar and Ergen, 2002; Çinar, 2003a, b)
In Mouro Island (MI) silt is limited to the bottom of channels, whereas in MP and Horadada Island (HI) sedimentation occurs over the whole area
TABLE 1. – Syllids collected in the study area listed in decreasing order of total density within each subfamily (Syllinae, Eusyllinae, Autolytinae, Exogoninae), and per habitat
Summary
The family Syllidae is one of the dominant taxa in terms of species number and abundance in coastal assemblages (San Martín, 1984, 2003; Serrano, 2002; Çinar and Ergen, 2002; Çinar, 2003a, b). Rocky environments, inhabiting algae and kelp rhizoids, and being part of the cryptofauna. This wide environmental range is a consequence of the wide range of body dimensions (from less than 1 mm to more than 90 mm), of feeding habits (from detritivores to carnivores) (Fauchald and Jumars, 1979; Giangrande et al, 2000), and of reproductive strategies (featuring epigamy or schizogamy by scissiparity or gemmiparity) (Franke, 1999). Not all syllid species show the same colonization success, since the family contains both eurytopic and stenotopic species
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