Brief description
The introduced European polychaete Sabella spallanzani has become a dominant feature of sub-tidal habitats in south-eastern Australia. This study examines the physical effects of Sabella spallanzanii on macrofaunal assembleges of soft sediments. The effects of S. spallanzanii on: i) existing macrofaunal assemblege; ii) distribution of larvae and iii) colonisation of macrofauna were tested in sub-tidal soft sediments at Clifton Springs, Bellarine Peninsula, Port Phillip Bay, Victoria. This dataset gives the macrofauna assemblege of soft sediment cores collected from five replicate plots, in each of four experimental treatments: i) Real Sabella, a clump of 15 S. spallanzanii individuals transplanted from the surrounding region; ii) Mimic Sabella, a clump of 15 S. spallanzanii mimics; iii) Control, undisturbed sediment without S. spallanzanii and iv) Disturbed Control, disturbed sediments without S. spallanzanii. Plots containing real and mimic Sabella were used to test if changes in the assemblage of macrofauna in the presence of Sabella could be attributed to physical effects alone. A comparison of control and disturbed sediments was used to test if the disturbance created when transplanting Sabella into experimental plots contributed to any observed changes in the macrofauna assemblage. Comparisons between Real (RS) and Mimic Sabella (MS), and Control (C) and Disturbed Control (DC) treatments were found not to differ significantly for any of the individual taxa or combined groups. Consequently, data from RS and MS treatments were pooled and compared against pooled data from C and DC treatments. This analysis found that the presence of Sabella reduced the abundance of harpacticoid copepods, cumaceans and ostracods by more than 50% compared with numbers found in sediment without Sabella. Collectively these taxa made up 80% of the total numbers of individuals in soil cores; as such the total number of individuals was also significantly reduced by the presence of Sabella.Lineage
Maintenance and Update Frequency: notPlanned
Statement: Sabella mimics were constructed from clear plastic tubes with natural fibrous twine attached to mimic feeding fans; Sediment corer (10 cm diameter); 500 µm mesh, 0.1% Rose Bengal, 70% Ethanol.
Statement: 1.Source:
a. Dataset: This dataset gives the abundance of taxa found in sediment cores (10 cm diameter x 7 cm deep) collected from five replicate plots in each of four experimental treatments: i) Real Sabella, a clump of 15 Sabella spallanzanii individuals transplanted from the surrounding region; ii) Mimic Sabella, a clump of 15 Sabella mimics; iii) Control, undisturbed sediment without Sabella; iv) Disturbed control, disturbed sediments without Sabella. Sabella mimics were constructed from clear plastic tubes with natural fibrous twine attached to mimic feeding fans. Twenty treatment plots, each 1 m2 and separated by 2 m, were established in a grid pattern within a sub-tidal zone (7.5 m deep) of soft sediments at Clifton Springs, Bellarine Peninsula in December 2002. Five plots were randomly allocated to each of the four treatment groups. Plots containing real and mimic Sabella were used to test if changes in the assemblage of macrofauna in the presence of Sabella could be attributed to physical effects alone. A comparison of control and disturbed sediments were used to test if the disturbance created when transplanting Sabella into experimental plots contributed to any observed changes in the macrofauna assemblage. Soil cores were collected in January 2003, 4 weeks after imposing the experimental treatments. Cores were collected directly beneath real and mimic Sabella clumps. After collection sediments were sieved (500 µm mesh), stained with 0.1% Rose Bengal and stored frozen until processed for taxonomic identified and enumeration.
Data columns in the data set are:
Treatment (R, Real Sabella; M, Mimic Sabella; C, Control (undisturbed sediment without Sabella); DC, Disturbed Control (disturbed sediment without Sabella); Sample (1-20); The remaining columns give the numbers of individuals per soil core (10 cm diameter x 7cm deep) for: Total Individuals, Mysella, Bivalves, Amphipods, Harpacticoid copepods, Cumaceans, Ostracods, Crustaceans, Polychaetes, Gastropods.
NB. Total individuals recorded in the dataset includes counts of individuals for species that occurred in < 30 % of the samples.
For more details on the methods and experimental design see:
O'Brien, A., Ross, D.J. & Keough, M.J. (2006) Effects of Sabella spallanzanii physical structure on soft sediment macrofaunal assemblages. Marine and Freshwater Research 57: 363-371.
b. Scale: Number of individuals per soil container (11 cm diameter x 6 cm deep).
c. Media Types: Not Relevant
d. Date: January 2003
e. Dates of various parts of the process: Soil cores were collected in January 2003, 4 weeks after imposing the experimental treatments.
2. Processing Steps
a. Intermediate processing steps (after data capture): Not Relevant
b. Methods used to generate final product: Not Relevant
Notes
CreditThe research was supported by an Australian Research Council linkage grant.
Credit
Various people assisted with field work including E. Bone, P. Addison and R. Watson.
Various people assisted with field work including E. Bone, P. Addison and R. Watson.
Purpose
To assess if the presence of Sabella spallanzanii alters the assemblage of macrofauna that colonise soft sediments.
To assess if the presence of Sabella spallanzanii alters the assemblage of macrofauna that colonise soft sediments.
Created: 02 02 2007
Data time period: 2002-12-18 to 2003-01-15
text: westlimit=144.56639; southlimit=-38.1499; eastlimit=144.56639; northlimit=-38.14944
text: uplimit=10; downlimit=5
Subjects
22 000000 |
22 083031 |
23 199000 |
23 236005 |
23 315005 |
24 000000 |
27 100000 |
27 254000 |
28 090000 |
28 401000 |
ANIMALS/INVERTEBRATES |
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS |
ARTHROPODS |
Benthic Habitat |
BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION |
BIOSPHERE |
Bioturbation |
Bellarine Peninsula |
Biosphere | Zoology | Invertebrates |
Bivalvia |
Crustaceans |
Cumacea |
EARTH SCIENCE |
ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS |
Electroma georgiana |
Gastropoda |
Harpacticoida |
MARINE SEDIMENTS |
Mysella donaciformis |
OCEANS |
Oceans | Marine Biology | Marine Invertebrates |
Ostracoda |
Population Dynamics |
Phyoxocephalidae |
Polychaeta |
Port Phillip Bay |
SPECIES/POPULATION INTERACTIONS |
Sabella spallanzanii |
biota |
larvae |
subtidal |
taxonomic_group_count |
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Other Information
(Sabella1_ExistingAssemblage_data.xls)
Identifiers
- global : dfda0660-0e5c-11dc-8c12-00188b4c0af8
