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• Autor(a) principal: Pagliosa, Paulo Roberto
• Data de Publicação: 2006
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Biotemas (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/biotemas/article/view/21248

Intertidal to subtidal distribution of benthic macrofauna in an estuarine beach of Babitonga Bay, southern Brazil. This paper reports on the spatial variation of a macrofaunal community along the intertidalsubtidalgradient of an estuarine beach located at the mouth of Babitonga Bay, in Southern Brazil. The fauna and sediment were sampled at 0, 5, 10, and 20 m depths in three transects. Differences in benthic assemblagesamong the depths were found to be significant and related to the major local processes of sediment changes. The analysis of taxa composition showed an impoverished community subject to wave action and erosio naccretion dynamics at landward stations (0 and 5 m depths). Seaward macrofauna (10 and 20 m depths) inhabiting sediments with higher organic content and poorly-sorted sands were more diverse and numerically dominated by ophiuroids and by cirratulid (Tharyx sp.) and maldanid (Clymenella brasiliensis) polychaetes. A breakdown in the zonation patterns of environment and community was detected where sediments produced by a creek outlet enabled increasing stability and higher densities of the soft bottom anthozoa Edwardsia sp. and the polychaete Lumbrineris atlantica. Additionally, the sediments with an excessive amount of fine particles were densely colonized (mean of 22,400 individuals.m-2) by C. brasiliensis. The local sediment characteristics were related to maldanid sediment-reworking. The macrofaunal species compositions along the sandy beachesat the mouths of the southern Brazilian estuarine systems were compared.