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Project ISOFUN - Relationship between functional and isotopic diversity of coastal benthic communities

Benthic invertebrates affect many processes essential for the proper functioning of marine

ecosystems. The functional diversity of benthic animals, associated with their biological

characteristics, like feeding behavior, way of movement, as well as body size, affect e.g. sediment

mixing, which enhance the oxygen supply to sediments, and modify the exchange of nutrients at the

sediment-water interface. Coastal zones of the seas are characterized by high biodiversity of

benthos, as well as diverse sources of food for animals. The food (organic matter) in the form of

microalgae (phytoplankton) and plant debris (detritus) is produced directly in the sea or transported

to the sea by rivers. It is well known, that the source and the amount of food shape marine food

webs and biochemical structure of animals consuming it, and in particular their isotopic

composition of carbon and nitrogen. In consequence, relations among animals and organic matter

shape the trophic (isotopic) diversity of benthic communities. However, little is known about how

these relations influence the functional diversity of benthos. Thus, the main aim of this project is to

study the relationship of isotopic and functional diversity and to answer the question of how

different sources and amounts of organic matter (among other environmental gradients) influence

this relationship on the example of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea.

The main hypothesis of the project assumes that in the area with lower food availability (open

Polish coast near Łeba), benthic community will be characterized by greater diversity, caused by

competition for limited food. In turn, in the area with greater access to food (Gulf of Gdańsk near

the Vistula outflow), invertebrates population will be larger, while due to lack of interspecies

competition, it will also be relatively less diversified. Because in temperate regions, the amount of

organic matter changes seasonally, samples were collected in two contrasting seasons (winter and

late summer). To address the research questions, an innovative approach of combining both

functional and isotopic indices of diversity will be used. Furthermore, we will assess the influence

of organic matter properties among other environmental variables (depth, water mass

characteristics, sediment characteristics) on the diversity and structure of coastal benthic

communities. The results of the study will improve our understanding of organic matter influence

on benthic biodiversity and functioning of marine coastal ecosystems and will be an important

contribution to science in the face of climate change and eutrophication of marine environments,

caused by humans.

Simple

Date (Publication)
2024-09-12T11:34:00+00:00
Edition

http://localhost:8080/demodem/editioin

Code
10.48457/iopan-2024-265
Status
Completed
Point of contact
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences

Marta Szczepanek

slominska@iopan.pl

Point of contact
Maintenance and update frequency
As needed
Metadata author
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences

Monika Grabowska

mgrabowska@iopan.pl

Custodian
Theme
  • macrozoobenthos

  • macrofauna

  • marine ecology

Place
  • Baltic Sea

Access constraints
License
Use constraints
License
Other constraints

CC BY

Spatial representation type
Text, table
Denominator
5000
Language
English
Character set
UTF8
Topic category
  • Oceans
Begin date
2021-01-19
End date
2024-07-18
N
S
E
W
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Supplemental Information

Relationship between functional and isotopic diversity of coastal benthic communities (ISOFUN)

2020/37/N/NZ8/01418

Narodowe Centrum Nauki (National Science Center of Poland)

https://projekty.ncn.gov.pl/index.php?projekt_id=48056 1

Reference system identifier
WGS 1984
Distribution format
Name Version

csv

text

Distributor contact
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences

Marta Szczeoanek

slominska@iopan.pl

Principal investigator
OnLine resource
Protocol Linkage Name

WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link

https://geo.iopan.pl/opendap/data/csv/ISOFUN/ISOFUN_metadata.csv

ISOFUN/ISOFUN_metadata.csv

WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.974539/full

Utilization of riverine organic matter by macrobenthic communities in a temperate prodelta.

WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link

https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/lno.12506

Functional structure and diversity of marine benthos reflect food availability and quality, as evidenced by isotopic diversity

WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link

http://opendap.iopan.pl/opendap/hyrax/data/csv/ISOFUN/ISOFUN_metadata.csv

ISOFUN_metadata.csv

OnLine resource
Protocol Linkage Name

DOI

https://doi.org/10.48457/iopan-2024-265

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

Hierarchy level
Dataset
Statement

The data was collected and processed according to EU standards.

Metadata

File identifier
23378332-11d4-469a-b201-78e6635d4a70 XML
Metadata language
English
Character set
UTF8
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Date stamp
2025-12-09T12:44:08.478776Z
Metadata standard name

ISO 19115:2003/19139

Metadata standard version

1.0

Metadata author
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences

Marta Szczepanek

slominska@iopan.pl

Principal investigator
 
 

Overviews

overview

Spatial extent

N
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W
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Keywords

macrofauna macrozoobenthos marine ecology

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Access to the catalogue
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Associated resources

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