Redundancy of macrobenthos from lagoonal habitats in the Adriatic Sea

Abstract

In a recent paper, Clarke & Warwick (1998; Oecologia 113: 278-289) developed a method of quantifying the complementarity of species assemblages, and demonstrated that in some marine benthic communities the redundancy in community composition was remarkably high. The concept of structural and functional redundancy was tested using macrobenthic species abundance data from 2 eutrophic lagoons, the Valli di Comacchio and the Sacca di Goro, in the northern Adriatic Sea. Samples were collected at approximately seasonal intervals: the Comacchio data set spanned from November 1996 to January 2000, while the Goro data set was from January 1993 to December 1998. The level of structural redundancy in such habitats was quite low, while functional redundancy seemed higher. These findings are probably of great importance in considering conservation action and management of such habitats.