Succession of benthic hard bottom communities in the shallow sublittoral of Comau Fjord, Chile
2012
Reichel, Lisa
Succession was already studied over decades. The present thesis investigated the succession on hard substrate at two different study sites within the fjord Comau, Chile. Nine plates were installed at both sites (mouth of fjord and inner fjord) and photographed over three years. Additionally the natural community was recorded and a ground truthing was carried out to verify the analyzed species. Respectively at both sites over 50 different species were detected. Abundance data decreased with only one exception continuously, whereas the percentage cover increased. But the communities on the recruitment plates still did not reach the community structure of the natural environment. The present data indicates that for the hard bottom community in the fjord Comau is best described by the TOLERANCE MODEL (Connell & Slatyer, 1977). An important species of the natural community is the stony coral Desmophyllum dianthus, which normally (outside the fjord) grows beneath 1000 m water depth. The the still not reached diversity shows that the mature community is still not reached on the installed recruitment plates.
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