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Spatial variation in the structural parameters of Cymodocea nodosa seagrass meadows in the Canary Islands: a multiscaled approach

  • Carmen Barberá , Fernando Tuya , Arturo Boyra , Pablo Sanchez-Jerez , Ivan Blanch and Ricardo J. Haroun
Published/Copyright: July 5, 2005
Botanica Marina
From the journal Volume 48 Issue 2

Abstract

Meadows of the seagrass Cymodocea nodosa (legislated as an endangered species) are the dominant vegetated communities in shallow soft bottoms throughout the Canary Islands (central east Atlantic Ocean). We provide baseline ecological information for this key species for the whole Canarian Archipelago by describing the spatial distribution patterns of structural parameters (percent coverage and shoot density) at different hierarchical spatial scales (from tens of meters to hundreds of kilometers). The coverage values varied between 42.5 and 100% (mean±SE=76.7±2.5%, N=80) and the mean shoot density per location ranged between 164 and 710 shoots m−2 (mean±SE=403.6±17.0 shoots m−2, N=160). We observed a strong variability at small- to medium-spatial scales (locations within islands separated by tens of kilometres and sites hundreds of meters apart within locations) in contrast to a lack of inter-island variability. Additionally, the structural parameters respond differentially to different sets of ecological and physical processes operating at these scales.

Keywords: Canarian Archipelago; Cymodocea nodosa; meadow structure; seagrass
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References

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Published Online: 2005-07-05
Published in Print: 2005-04-01

© Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York

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https://doi.org/10.1515/BOT.2005.021
Keywords for this article
Canarian Archipelago; Cymodocea nodosa; meadow structure; seagrass

Articles in the same Issue

  1. First letters to the editor in Botanica Marina's “Forum” section
  2. Propagule release and recruitment in Porphyra perforata (Rhodophyta) from Baja California, Mexico
  3. Spatio-temporal variability of intertidal algal assemblages of the Slovenian coast (Gulf of Trieste, northern Adriatic Sea)
  4. Persistence of sea urchin (Heliocidaris erythrogramma) barrens on the east coast of Tasmania: inhibition of macroalgal recovery in the absence of high densities of sea urchins
  5. Biomass and taxonomic richness of epilithic cyanobacteria in a tropical intertidal rocky habitat
  6. Spatial variation in the structural parameters of Cymodocea nodosa seagrass meadows in the Canary Islands: a multiscaled approach
  7. The structure of sulfated galactans from selected species of New Zealand Champia
  8. The structure of the galactan from Aeodes nitidissima (Halymeniales, Rhodophyta)
  9. The structure of the polysaccharide from Grateloupia intestinalis in New Zealand
  10. Evaluation of the structures of polysaccharides from three taxa in the genus Hymenena and from Acrosorium decumbens (Rhodophyta, Delesseriaceae)
  11. The structure of polysaccharides from selected New Zealand species of Grateloupia
  12. The application of 13C NMR spectroscopy to the red algal polysaccharides of selected New Zealand species of Lomentaria
  13. Pseudovivipary, a new form of asexual reproduction in the seagrass Posidonia oceanica
  14. Comments on the papers by Ian J. Miller devoted to carbon-13 NMR spectroscopy of red algal galactans
  15. Response to “Comments on the papers by Ian J. Miller devoted to carbon-13 NMR spectroscopy of red algal galactans” by Anatolii I. Usov; Bot. Mar. 48 (2005): 178–180
  16. 8th International Phycological Congress 13–19 August 2005, Durban, South Africa
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