A meiobenthic community was utilized to examine the ecological impact of hand raking for Manila clams in the Sacca di Goro. Two adjacent plots were chosen: the “control”; plot was left undisturbed, while, in the “raked”; plot, at the beginning of the experiment, a shellfish farmer completely raked the sediment. The meiobenthos at both sites was relatively impoverished, the harpacticoid community being constituted by only a few taxa. Within two days, meiofaunal abundance at the raked plot was similar to the adjacent unharvested control area. Nematodes, however, recovered more quickly than harpacticoids. The short recolo-nization time probably indicates that meiobenthic populations form a dynamic assemblage with a remarkable dispersal ability, allowing them to recover quickly from small-scale disturbance. © 2004 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
Disturbance of a soft-sediment meiobenthic community by clam hand raking
MISTRI, Michele;MUNARI, Cristina;ROSSI, Remigio
2004
Abstract
A meiobenthic community was utilized to examine the ecological impact of hand raking for Manila clams in the Sacca di Goro. Two adjacent plots were chosen: the “control”; plot was left undisturbed, while, in the “raked”; plot, at the beginning of the experiment, a shellfish farmer completely raked the sediment. The meiobenthos at both sites was relatively impoverished, the harpacticoid community being constituted by only a few taxa. Within two days, meiofaunal abundance at the raked plot was similar to the adjacent unharvested control area. Nematodes, however, recovered more quickly than harpacticoids. The short recolo-nization time probably indicates that meiobenthic populations form a dynamic assemblage with a remarkable dispersal ability, allowing them to recover quickly from small-scale disturbance. © 2004 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
