Influence of urbanization in shaping Chthamalus barnacle’s epifaunal assemblages
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1
Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar (ICBAS), Portugal
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2
Centro Interdisciplinar de Pesquisa Marine e Ambiental (CIIMAR), Portugal
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3
Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Portugal
Acorn barnacles of the genus Chthamalus are sessile organisms that occur abundantly in the rocky shores along the Atlantic coasts (Crisp et al., 1981). These cirripeds play the role of ecosystem engineers by creating and modifying micro-habitats for intertidal fauna (Barnes, 2000). These engineers provide different ecosystem services, such as habitat for different species, increasing the biodiversity. Anthropogenic activities can influence the provision of these services by affecting the role of acorn barnacles as habitat-provider to epifaunal assemblages. Contamination by heavy metals is one of the most impactful outcomes of human activities (Robinson et al., 2017) and industrial plants in coastal areas are one of the sources of these contaminants. In this study, the effects of urbanization, using heavy metal content on barnacles as proxy, on the structure of the faunal assemblages associated with Chthamalus was studied. The study encompassed four rocky shores in North Portugal: two urban shores in Porto district and two not-urban shores in Viana do Castelo district. In each rocky shore, two sites were considered. At each site, six quadrats (10 x 10 cm) with barnacles were photographed for later counting of the full and empty barnacle tests as a proxy of habitat complexity (Harley and Riley, 2011). Then, barnacles were collected to study their associated macrofauna. Univariate and multivariate analyses were done to test potential differences between urban and not-urban shores on the number of empty and full barnacle tests and on their epifaunal assemblages.
A higher content of heavy metals was found in the urban shores. The univariate analysis for the barnacles’ complexity (percentage of empty tests) did not show significant differences between conditions. A total of 16,283 individuals belonging to 28 different taxa were found. ANOVA and PERMANOVA analysis did not reveal any significant differences in the faunal assemblages associated with barnacles between conditions (urban and not-urban). However, ANOVA considering the spatial variability of the community structure revealed significant differences between urban and not-urban shores and an interaction between conditions and scales. Our results indicate that the urbanization does not have a significant effect in shaping the barnacle complexity and their faunal assemblages. However, urbanization influences the spatial variability of their macrobenthic assemblages.
Acknowledgements
This research was partially financially supported by ECOSERVICES, funded by the North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). During this study, A.C.T. (SFRH/BD/114935/2016) was supported by PhD grant and M.R. (SFRH/BDP/104225/2014) and P.V. (SFRH/BPD/81582/2011) by postdoctoral grants awarded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia.
References
Barnes, M., 2000. The use of intertidal barnacle shells. Oceanogr. Mar. Biol. 38, 157-187.
Crisp, D.J., Southward, A.J., Southward, E.C., 1981. On the distribution of the intertidal barnacles Chthamalus stellatus, Chthamalus montagui and Euraphia depressa. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K. 61, 359-380.
Harley, C.D.G., O’Riley, J.L., 2011. Non-linear density-dependent effects of an intertidal ecosystem engineer. Oecologia 166, 531-541.
Robinson, C.D., Webster, L., Martínez-Gómez, C., Burgeot, T., Gubbins, M.J., Thain, J.E., Vethaak, A.D., McIntosh, A.D., Hylland, K., 2017. Assessment of contaminant concentrations in sediments, fish and mussels sampled from the North Atlantic and European regional seas within the ICON project. Mar. Environ. Res. 124, 21-31.
Keywords:
Ecosystem engineer,
Epifaunal assemblages,
Urbanization,
Chthamalus spp.,
spatial variability,
North Portugal
Conference:
IMMR'18 | International Meeting on Marine Research 2018, Peniche, Portugal, 5 Jul - 6 Jul, 2018.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Biodiversity, Conservation and Coastal Management
Citation:
Costa-Garcia
R,
Torres
A,
Veiga
P and
Rubal
M
(2019). Influence of urbanization in shaping Chthamalus barnacle’s epifaunal assemblages.
Front. Mar. Sci.
Conference Abstract:
IMMR'18 | International Meeting on Marine Research 2018.
doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2018.06.00132
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Received:
30 May 2018;
Published Online:
07 Jan 2019.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Ricardo Costa-Garcia, Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar (ICBAS), Porto, Portugal, r.costa-garcia@hotmail.com