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Marine biodiversity on the Algerian Continental Shelf (Mediterranean Sea)
- Source :
- Journal of Natural History, Journal of Natural History, Taylor & Francis, 2013, 47 (25-28), pp.1745-1765. 〈10.1080/00222933.2012.752545〉, Journal of Natural History, Taylor & Francis, 2013, 47 (25-28), pp.1745-1765. ⟨10.1080/00222933.2012.752545⟩
- Publication Year :
- 2013
- Publisher :
- HAL CCSD, 2013.
-
Abstract
- International audience; The Mediterranean Sea is known as a biodiversity hot spot, with 16,848 species reported. Biodiversity is higher in coastal areas and decreases with depth. However, knowledge about the southwestern sector remains scarce. For the last three decades, sampling of soft-bottom communities along the 1180 km of the shallow Algerian coast (0–136 m) has recorded 1642 macrobenthic species. There is a decreasing west–east species-richness gradient, especially for the total species richness and the amphipods. In addition, quantitative sampling in Bou Ismail Bay in summer 1988 (98 sampling sites for a total of 841 species) shows that diversity indices (i.e. species richness, >100 species for 0.2 m−2; Shannon diversity, >6.0; and ES50, >34) are among the highest for similar sand and muddy-fine sand communities in the Mediterranean Sea and the northeastern Atlantic Ocean. Bou Ismail Bay appears to have the highest species richness among Algerian bays, probably because of its variety of benthic habitats and the absence of significant pollution in this area. Monitoring must be undertaken to survey this high biodiversity, and a national strategy should be proposed to preserve high diversity zones.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Species distribution
Biodiversity
[SDV.BID]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
soft-bottom benthic communities
[ SDV.EE ] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology, environment
Mediterranean sea
Mediterranean Sea
14. Life underwater
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Taxonomy
[SDV.EE]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology, environment
[ SDV.BID ] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity
geography
geography.geographical_feature_category
species diversity
Continental shelf
Ecology
010604 marine biology & hydrobiology
Species diversity
Algerian coast
15. Life on land
Biodiversity hotspot
species distribution
Species richness
Bay
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00222933 and 14645262
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of Natural History, Journal of Natural History, Taylor & Francis, 2013, 47 (25-28), pp.1745-1765. 〈10.1080/00222933.2012.752545〉, Journal of Natural History, Taylor & Francis, 2013, 47 (25-28), pp.1745-1765. ⟨10.1080/00222933.2012.752545⟩
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....b87b8a5e0af87a0060db1fe6b4c2dc11