Sediment community oxygen consumption (SCOC) is a proxy for organic matter processing and thus provides a useful proxy of benthic ecosystem function. Oxygen uptake in deep-sea sediments is mainly driven by bacteria, and the direct contribution of benthic macro- and mega-infauna respiration is thought to be relatively modest. However, the main contribution of infaunal organisms to benthic respir...

We developed a benthic index for the nearshore Gulf of Maine to provide researchers and environmental managers a way to make spatial and year-to-year comparisons of benthic condition. The data set used included 248 stations sampled for physical, chemical, and biological variables by the National Coastal Assessment in 2000–2003. We used logistic regression with 49 candidate measures of benthic s...

Structural patterns of a sublittoral community were analyzed through a two-year series of samples in the Southwestern Gulf of Mexico. The groups involved in the study comprise fishes, molluscs, echinoderms and crustaceans. The time-space progressions of Second Order diversity values range between N2=5.3 and N2=9.8 at depths of 40 and 20 m respectively, through the first year of samples. In the ...

We summarized studies on the impacts and scale effects of negative (competition, predation, parasitism, herbivory) and positive (mutualism, commensalism, indirect facilitation) species interactions in freshwater benthic habitats since ,1986 and focused on organisms with mainly or entirely aquatic life cycles. Benthologists publishing in J-NABS have contributed robustly to our overall knowledge ...

Associations between macrobenthic communities, measures of water column and sediment exposure, and measures of anthropogenic activities throughout the watershed were examined for the Chesapeake Bay, U.S. The condition of the macrobenthic communities was indicated by a multimetric benthic index of biotic integrity (B-IBI) that compares deviation of community metrics from values at reference site...

Many coral reefs in the Caribbean experienced substantial changes in their benthic community composition during the last decades. This often resulted in phase shifts from scleractinian coral dominance to that by other benthic invertebrate or algae. However, knowledge about how the related role of coral-algae contacts may negatively affect corals is scarce. Therefore, benthic community compositi...

This research was developed between 1993 and 1996, aiming to study the structure of the benthic macroinvertebrate community, relating it to some abiotic variables, in an amazonian lake (lago Batata), that received for ten years a great amount of bauxite tailings. The benthic macroinvertebrates were collected with a core and the abiotic variables that were measured were: dissolved oxygen, suspen...

The paper deals with the standing stock of macrobenthic infauna and associated environmental factors influencing the benthic community in the shelf region of the northwest Indian coast. The data were collected onboard FORV Sagar Sampada during the winter monsoon (January-February, 2003) to understand the community structure and the factors influencing the benthic distribution. The environmental...

Next to the benthic and pelagic compartments, the epiphyton of submerged macrophytes may offer an additional niche for ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in shallow freshwater lakes. In this study, we explored the potential activities and community compositions of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria of the epiphytic, benthic, and pelagic compartments of seven shallow freshwater lakes which differed in their tro...

Large-scale algal community patterns can be understood by studying organisation within patches. Spatial heterogeneity in light and substratum type may affect the biomass and community composition of benthic algae and cyanobacteria. We compared the effects of these factors at the species level in two reaches differing in canopy cover in a forested Mediterranean stream in winter (high water flow)...