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The swash zone selects functionally specialized assemblages of beach interstitial meiofauna (Platyhelminthes, Proseriata)
  • Alejandro Martinez,
  • Diego Fontaneto,
  • Marco Curini-Galetti
Alejandro Martinez
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Diego Fontaneto
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
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Marco Curini-Galetti
University of Sassari
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Abstract

Life is not a beach for those animals that survive in the rough ecological conditions found in marine sandy beaches—and yet, microscopic animals thrive on them. We explore the drivers for meiofaunal diversity in beaches by analysing taxonomic and functional patterns of 348 flatworm communities across 116 reflective beaches in the Western Mediterranean, totalling 152 species (61.2% new to Science). First, we confirm that species richness does not differ between beach hydrodynamic levels (swash, shoaling and surf) but rather depends on the characteristics of each beach. Second, we demonstrate that species composition across those levels depends on the species traits, in addition to geographical and abiotic factors. Third, we highlight that the species functional space has a lower richness than expected and a lower redundancy in the wave-exposed swash level compared to the shoaling and subtidal levels, suggesting a trait-based ecological filtering. Finally, we show that those differences depend on the higher frequency of hydrodynamics-related traits in the species of the swash level. Our results suggest that the rough hydrodynamic conditions in the swash level favour a unique combination of species traits, which might be linked to ecological speciation in flatworms but also in other interstitial animals.
19 Oct 2023Submitted to Ecography
20 Oct 2023Submission Checks Completed
20 Oct 2023Assigned to Editor
20 Oct 2023Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
23 Oct 2023Reviewer(s) Assigned
24 Feb 2024Editorial Decision: Revise Major
20 Mar 20241st Revision Received
16 Sep 2024Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
17 Sep 2024Editorial Decision: Accept