Special Issue "Spatial and Temporal Benthic Diversity Patterns"

Guest Editor
Dr. Cristina Munari
Dipartimento di Biologia ed Evoluzione, Università di Ferrara, Via Luigi Borsari 46, 44100 Ferrara, Italy
E-Mail:
Interests: benthic diversity patterns; coastal and transitional waters; biodiversity assessment and monitoring; spatial scales of diversity; macrofauna; biotic indicators

Dear Colleagues,

Understanding the constraints on community composition at multiple spatial and temporal scales is an immense challenge to community and ecosystem ecologists. Indeed, spatial and temporal patterning of populations provide the means by which biodiversity is maintained in ecological communities.

Benthic communities can play an important role in aquatic ecosystem functioning. In particular, benthic macroinvertebrates are the major players in the transferral of energy to upper trophic levels, and include species with different life cycles and specific tolerances to stress events, which make them suitable to reflect the magnitude of disturbances. However, benthic condition assessments have to take into account that benthic communities show high spatial heterogeneity and temporal variations that are related to the influence of natural gradients of different factors contributing to the overall distribution of species, seasonal and interannual environmental changes, seasonal reproduction period, short life span, and temporal variability in the physical disturbance.

Ecological monitoring evaluates whether anthropogenic-induced changes in aquatic ecosystems affect the benthic diversity (e.g., community structure and composition, and species richness) and the biological properties of the system. However, a paucity of studies investigate natural variability at a hierarchy of spatial/temporal scales. Many patterns observed in benthic diversity are frequently interpreted in the light of such large scale processes, even though many small scale variations of benthic environments are responsible for complex patterns of benthic patchiness that can potentially confound the interpretation of results of the survey. Studing spatial and temporal patterning of benthic diversity across scales may yield important clues as to which scales of environmental heterogeneity influence community structure. In this context, the need for long term data is essential, given the large-scale environmental changes in aquatic ecosystems.

Understanding the pattern of changes in benthic diversity through community monitoring is therefore crucial in both management and environmental policy.

Dr. Cristina Munari
Guest Editor

Submission Information

All manuscripts should be submitted to diversity@mdpi.org with a copy to the Guest Editor. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diversity is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI.

For the first two issues, to be published in 2009 and 2010, the Article Processing Charges (APC) will be waived for well-prepared manuscripts. English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.

• benthic diversity
• community structure
• spatial and temporal patterns
• multiple scales
• benthic monitoring
• environmental variability
• long term data
• spatial heterogeneity

Type of Paper: Review
Title: Spatial and Temporal Benthic Diversity Patterns on Coral Reefs—Region-wide Comparisons and Implications for the Design of Networks of Marine Protected Areas
Author: Angela Dikou; E-Mail: angeladikou@hotmail.com
Abstract: This comprehensive review aims to (i) present the critical (natural and anthropogenic) processes driving benthic diversity patterns on contemporary coral reefs with emphasis on scleractinians (invertebrates) and coral reef fish (vertebrates); (ii) compare critical processes and their concomitant benthic diversity patterns on coral reefs at the Indo-Pacific, the Caribbean and the Red Sea regions, and (iii) elucidate their implications for the design of networks of Marine protected Areas for each region by utilising proposed, yet divergent, approaches, such as the hierarchy approach and the connectivity approach.