Abstract
Re-oligotrophication trajectories of macrophyte assemblages in Mediterranean coastal lagoons based on 17-year time-series
Highlights
Marine benthic macrophyte communities, including seagrasses and macroalgae, play a major structural and functional role in shallow coastal ecosystems such as estuaries and coastal lagoons
We aimed to describe a general pattern for re-oligotrophication trajectories for the macrophyte communities all the way from hypertrophy to oligotrophy
Such a complete trajectory that was not observed for a single lagoon in our database, can be inferred by combining trajectories observed in the compromise factor map for different lagoons (Fig. 4)
Summary
Marine benthic macrophyte communities, including seagrasses and macroalgae, play a major structural and functional role in shallow coastal ecosystems such as estuaries and coastal lagoons. Marine macrophytes are among the most productive habitats. Submerged aquatic vegetation contributes to increase water transparency. The uptake of nutrients, and the production of oxygen and its release into the water column (Romero et al 2006), may reduce potential anoxic events. Macrophytes represent an important food source and provide nurseries and foraging habitats for many species (e.g. invertebrates, fish, and birds). Macrophytes create complex habitats and influence the physical, chemical and biological parameters of coastal environments by acting as ecological engineers and providing many ecosystem services (Costanza et al 1997, Orth et al 2006, Barbier et al 2011)
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