Striking Century-Long Changes in Marine Benthos

Rutger Rosenberg

doi:10.4236/jep.2014.513125

Abstract

One of the oldest published records of benthic fauna was made in 1893 by dredging along transects from soft bottoms, sand and shell debris to rocky bottoms in an archipelago at the Swedish Skagerrak coast. Three of the transects were revisited in 2010 and then fewer taxa were recorded and the shared species between sampling dates at the transects were only between 8% and 12%. The main causes for the drastic changes are suggested to be large-scale eutrophication changing the vegetation composition and variation of climatic factors.

Highlights

Substantial changes in marine ecosystems have been reported repeatedly over the last decades
There is substantial evidence that marine ecosystems are under pressure and that changes have been going on for a long time
Comparing the number of taxa shared at the two sampling dates at Bonden, Spättan and Flatholmen resulted in numbers of 4, 8 and 6 taxa, respectively

Summary

Introduction

Substantial changes in marine ecosystems have been reported repeatedly over the last decades. Jackson et al [1] concluded that ecological extinction caused by overfishing precedes all other pervasive human disturbance to coastal ecosystems, and Pauli et al [2] reported a global loss of top predatory fish by fishing-down-the-food-web, which affects the function of the ecosystem. These selected studies show that man’s activities have far-reaching consequences on the functioning of the coastal marine ecosystem and in the ocean. There is substantial evidence that marine ecosystems are under pressure and that changes have been going on for a long time

Methods

Results

Conclusion