Indirect estimation of benthic secondary production in the Lagoon of Venice (Italy)
In: Hydrobiologia. Springer: The Hague. ISSN 0018-8158; e-ISSN 1573-5117
Also appears in:Lafite, R.; Garnier, J.; De Jonge, V.N. (Ed.) (2007). Consequences of estuarine management on hydrodynamics and ecological functioning: ECSA 38th Symposium - Rouen 2004 Co-organisation Seine-Aval Programme and ECSA. Hydrobiologia, 588. Springer: The Netherlands. 302 pp., more
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| Keywords |
Allometry
Aquatic communities > Benthos
Biological production > Secondary production
MED, Italy, Veneto, Venice Lagoon [Marine Regions]
Marine/Coastal |
| Author keywords |
Benthos; Lagoon of Venice; quart-power allometry; secondary production |
| Authors | | Top |
- Tagliapietra, D.
- Cornello, M.
- Pessa, G.
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| Abstract |
Five published indirect methods to estimate benthic secondary production of intertidal mudflats and a new proposed formulation based on quarter-power allometric scaling and the "Universal Temperature Dependence" of biological processes (UTD) were compared. For this purpose, a dataset consisting of an annual series of samples, taken from the Lagoon of Venice from March 1996 to March 1997, at sites characterised by different seagrass coverage was used. All methods resulted in that biomass and secondary production decreased progressively when moving from the seagrass meadow toward areas of unvegetated substrate, suggesting an influence of the available marine phanerogams on the neighbouring sites. The equation proposed in this paper gives results comparable with those obtained using empirical regression models from literature. The main conclusion from this study is that general equations proposed by the "metabolic theory of ecology" can be applied for indirect estimations of secondary production of benthic communities. |
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