Patterns of Spatial Variation of Assemblages Associated with Intertidal Rocky Shores: A Global Perspective

JUAN JOSE´ CRUZ-MOTTA ; PATRICIA MILOSLAVICH; GABRIELA PALOMO; KATRIN IKEN; BRENDA KONAR2; GERHARD POHLE4; TOM TROTT6,; LISANDRO BENEDETTI-CECCHI; CESAR HERRERA; ALEJANDRA HERNANDEZ; ADRIANA SARDI; ANDREA BUENO7; JULIO CASTILLO7; EDUARDO KLEIN1,7,; EDLIN GUERRA-CASTRO; JUDITH GOBIN9; DIANA ISABEL GO´MEZ10; RAFAEL RIOSMENA-RODRı´GUEZ; ANGELA MEAD12,; GREGORIO BIGATTI13, ; ANN KNOWLTON3,; YOSHIHISA SHIRAYAMA14

PLOS ONE

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Año: 2010 vol. 5 p. 1 - 10

1932-6203

Assemblages associated with intertidal rocky shores were examined for large scale distribution patterns with specificemphasis on identifying latitudinal trends of species richness and taxonomic distinctiveness. Seventy-two sites distributedaround the globe were evaluated following the standardized sampling protocol of the Census of Marine Life NaGISA project(www.nagisa.coml.org). There were no clear patterns of standardized estimators of species richness along latitudinalgradients or among Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs); however, a strong latitudinal gradient in taxonomic composition (i.e.,proportion of different taxonomic groups in a given sample) was observed. Environmental variables related to naturalinfluences were strongly related to the distribution patterns of the assemblages on the LME scale, particularly photoperiod,sea surface temperature (SST) and rainfall. In contrast, no environmental variables directly associated with human influences(with the exception of the inorganic pollution index) were related to assemblage patterns among LMEs. Correlations of thenatural assemblages with either latitudinal gradients or environmental variables were equally strong suggesting that neitherneutral models nor models based solely on environmental variables sufficiently explain spatial variation of theseassemblages at a global scale. Despite the data shortcomings in this study (e.g., unbalanced sample distribution), we showthe importance of generating biological global databases for the use in large-scale diversity comparisons of rocky intertidalassemblages to stimulate continued sampling and analyses.