Vegetation of the supralittoral and upper sublittoral zones of the Western German Baltic Sea coast: a phytosociological study

Dmitry F Afanasyev,Shamil R Abdullin,Florian Weinberger,Sophie Steinhagen

doi:10.1515/bot-2021-0026

Abstract

Abstract Supralittoral and shallow water seaweed communities are particularly exposed to impacts such as climate change and disturbance by humans. Therefore, their classification, the study of composition, and the monitoring of their structural changes are particularly important. A phytosociological survey of the supralittoral and upper sublittoral vegetation of the South West Baltic Sea revealed eight phytobenthos communities with two variants comprising 35 taxa of macrophytes (18 taxa of Chlorophyta, 13 taxa of Rhodophyta and four taxa of Phaeophyceae, Ochrophyta). Five of the eight communities were dominated by Ulvales (Ulva intestinalis, Kornmannia leptoderma, and three Blidingia species), the other three by Fucus vesiculosus. Most Fucus vesiculosus-dominated communities contained U. intestinalis and U. linza as subdominants. Only one of the communities had until now been described as an association ( Ulvetum intestinalis Feldman 1937). The syntaxonomic composition of the investigated vegetation includes both phytocenoses with the domination of green algae ( Ulvetum intestinalis Feldman 1937 and communities of Blidingia marginata, unidentified Blidingia spp. and Kornmannia leptoderma), as well as a number of communities dominated by Fucus vesiculosus. Mainly boreal Atlantic species and cosmopolitans make up the bulk of the species in these associations.

Highlights

Marine phytobenthic communities in the supralittoral and uppermost sublittoral zones, located at the interface between land, water and air, are dynamic and structurally diverse
We present results on the classification of the current macrophytobenthos communities from the supralittoral and upper sublittoral zone of the southwestern Baltic Sea coast in Germany based on floristic criteria
The syntaxonomic composition of the vegetation of the supralittoral and upper sublittoral zones of the SW Baltic Sea includes both phytocenoses with dominant green algae

Summary

Introduction

Marine phytobenthic communities in the supralittoral and uppermost sublittoral zones, located at the interface between land, water and air, are dynamic and structurally diverse. Past phytosociological classifications of such communities have been mainly limited to France, Italy, and Spain, referring mainly to the syntaxonomy of Mediterranean Sea bottom vegetation (Ballesteros 1992; Berner 1931; Boudouresque 1971; Feldmann 1937; Giaccone et al 1993). The data on syntaxonomy of marine macroalgal communities were summarized by Bültmann et al (2015) and Mucina et al (2016). The highly ranked syntaxa of algae have been compiled for the first EuroVegChecklist, including four classes for marine algal vegetation (Mucina et al 2016). These reports focus on Atlantic and Mediterranean sytaxa and provide no information about Baltic Sea communities

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Discussion

Conclusion