Document type
Journal articles
Document subtype
Full paper
Title
Catching the Drift of Marine Invertebrate Diversity through Digital Repositories—A Case Study of the Mangroves and Seagrasses of Maputo Bay, Mozambique
Participants in the publication
Marta Bento (Author)
Dep. Biologia Animal
MARE
José Paula (Author)
MARE - Centro de Ciências do Mar e Ambiente, -Universidade de Lisboa
Dep. Biologia Animal
Salomão Bandeira (Author)
Alexandra Marçal Correia (Author)
Dep. Biologia Animal
MARE
Summary
Mangroves and seagrasses present with high marine macroinvertebrate biodiversity that contributes to their structure and functioning. Macroinvertebrates possess a broad range of functional traits, making them excellent models for biodiversity and available-trait-based studies. This study aimed to characterize the biodiversity of marine macroinvertebrates as two different ecosystems situated along the coastline of Maputo Bay by compiling dispersed data from online databases. Specifically, this study addressed species richness, taxonomic and functional diversity based on two traits (habitat occupation and trophic guild), and the community structure of these traits. Mangroves presented with a higher species richness and taxonomic diversity than seagrasses. The functional diversity of mangroves was mostly explained by the trophic guild trait. In the case of seagrasses, functional diversity was mostly due to differences in habitat occupation in the 20th century, but the trophic guild accounted for this functional diversity from 2000 onwards. The comparison of community compositions between the two ecosystems showed low or no similarity. The use of digital databases revealed some limitations, mostly regarding the sampling methods and individual counts. The trends and data gaps presented in this study can be further used to inform subsequent systematic data acquisition and support the development of future research. A further step that may be taken to improve the use of digital data in future biodiversity studies is to fully incorporate functional traits, abundance and sampling methods into online databases.
Date of Submisson/Request
2022-12-28
Date of Acceptance
2023-02-07
Date of Publication
2023-02-09
Institution
MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Universidade de Lisboa
Where published
Diversity
Publication Identifiers
ISSN - 1424-2818
Publisher
MDPI AG
Document Identifiers
DOI -
https://doi.org/10.3390/d15020242
URL -
https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/15/2/242
Rankings
SCIMAGO Q1 (2021) - 668 - Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous)
Keywords
species richness
taxonomic diversity
functional diversity
community composition
East Africa
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