Ecology and spatial distribution of selected polychaete species from the Italian continental shelf

Figures & data

Table I. The 26 study areas located in the nine biogeographical zones identified in the Italian Seas (Bianchi 2004), the number of sampling stations for each area, divided into depth ranges ( C= Central; S= South; N=North)

Study Areas	Sea	Biogeographic Zone	Total number of Stations	Depth ranges (m)
				0-10	10,1-20	20,1-30	30,1-50	>50
1. Rosignano	Ligurian Sea	1	35	7	15	7	4	2
2. Elba	N Tyrrhenian Sea	1-2	41		2	2	15	22
3. Porto Ercole	N Tyrrhenian Sea	2	11			11
4. Montalto	C Tyrrhenian Sea	2	34			2	12	20
5. Civitavecchia	C Tyrrhenian Sea	2	70	1	5	21	43
6. Ostia	C Tyrrhenian Sea	2	68	4	27	14	23
7. Torpaterno	C Tyrrhenian Sea	2	26				18	8
8. Torvaianica	C Tyrrhenian Sea	2	50	4	4	4	12	26
9. Anzio	C Tyrrhenian Sea	2	31	4	7	4	16
10. Sabaudia	C Tyrrhenian Sea	2	57	4	7	5	13	28
11. Terracina	C Tyrrhenian Sea	2	50	7	5	2	10	26
12. Gaeta	C Tyrrhenian Sea	2	27		5	4	9	9
13. Ponza	C Tyrrhenian Sea	2	19				3	16
14. Porto Torres	Sardinian Sea	2	17			5	12
15. Olbia	C Tyrrhenian Sea	2	10	10
16. Baia	C Tyrrhenian Sea	3	17	4	5	4	4
17. Bagnoli	C Tyrrhenian Sea	3	33	33
18. Castellammare	S Tyrrhenian Sea	3	21			3	17	1
19. Bisceglie	S Adriatic Sea	7	11		11
20. Molise	C Adriatic Sea	8	52	20	11	11	7	3
21. Ortona	C Adriatic Sea	8	5		5
22. Giulianova	C Adriatic Sea	8	28	10	7	4	5	2
23. Marche	C Adriatic Sea	8	75	75
24. Civitanova Marche	C Adriatic Sea	8	23					23
25. Ravenna	N Adriatic Sea	9	9				9
26. Chioggia	N Adriatic Sea	9	52	7	4	41

Figure 1. Location of the 26 study areas from which data was extracted. Stations are numbered from the Ligurian Sea to the northern Adriatic Sea. The dimension of the circle is proportional to the number of stations investigated in each area. 1, Rosignano; 2, Elba; 3, Porto Ercole; 4, Montalto; 5, Civitavecchia; 6, Ostia; 7, Torpaterno; 8, Torvaianica; 9, Anzio; 10, Sabaudia; 11, Terracina; 12, Gaeta; 13, Ponza; 14, Porto Torres; 15, Olbia; 16, Baia; 17, Bagnoli; 18, Castellammare; 19, Bisceglie; 20, Molise; 21, Ortona; 22, Giulianova; 23, Marche; 24, Civitanova Marche; 25, Ravenna; 26, Chioggia. The nine biogeographical zones described in the Italian Seas are as according to Bianchi (2004) and followed in the checklist of flora and fauna of the Italian Seas (Relini 2008)

Table II. Distribution of the 20 selected species by the nine biogeographical zones of the Italian Seas. In white, the distribution of the selected species as reported in the Checklist of Flora and Fauna of the Italian Seas (Relini 2008); in grey, records confirming the species distribution; in black, new records distribution of five species (Aponuphis bilineata, A. brementi, A. fauveli, Nothria conchylega, and Onuphis eremita)

Species	Biogeographical Zones of Italian Seas
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Aponuphis bilineata (Baird, 1870)	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+
Aponuphis brementi (Fauvel, 1916)	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+
Aponuphis fauveli (Rioja, 1918)	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+
Chaetozone caputesocis (Saint-Joseph, 1894)	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+
Chaetozone gibber Woodham & Chambers, 1994	+	+	+				+	+	+
Clymenura leiopygos (Grube, 1860)	+	+	+				+	+	+
Diopatra neapolitana Delle Chiaje, 1841	+	+	+	+		+	+	+	+
Ditrupa arietina (O.F. Muller, 1776)	+	+	+		+	+	+		+
Drilonereis filum (Claparède, 1868)	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+
Eunice vittata (Delle Chiaje, 1828)	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+
Heteromastus filiformis (Claparède, 1864)	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+
Hyalinoecia tubicola (O.F. Müller, 1776)	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+
Melinna palmata Grube, 1870	+	+	+		+	+	+	+	+
Metasychis gotoi (Izuka, 1902)	+	+	+		+		+	+	+
Nematonereis unicornis (Grube, 1840)	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+
Nothria conchylega (M. Sars, 1835)		+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+
Onuphis eremita Audouin & Milne-Edwards, 1833		+	+			+	+	+	+
Owenia fusiformis Delle Chiaje, 1841	+	+	+		+	+	+	+	+
Pectinaria auricoma (O.F. Müller, 1776)	+	+	+	+	+		+	+	+
Sternaspis scutata (Ranzani, 1817)	+	+	+		+	+	+	+	+

Figure 2. Box-and-whisker plots describe the distribution of depths where species were found.

Figure 3. Distribution of the 20 selected species along the different depth ranges (in meters), taking into account the percentage of analysed stations, for each depth range, where the species were found. The maximum found percentage was 90%.

Figure 4. Distribution of the 20 selected species amongst different sediment classes according to Nota's classification (1958): sand (S) (>95% content of sand), muddy sand (mS) (70–95% content of sand), very sandy mud (vsM) (70–30% content of sand), sandy mud (sM) (30–5% content of sand) and mud (M) (<5% content of sand). The distributions take into account the percentage of analysed stations, for each sediment class, where the species were found. The maximum found percentage was 63%.

Table III. Frequency of station in each Nota's sediment class where each species was found. Species occurrence is also clustered into classes of relative abundances (%) of each species within the whole polychaete assemblages (S = sand; mS = muddy sand; vsM = very sandy mud; sM = sandy mud; M = mud)

	0-20 %					21-40 %					41-60 %					61-80 %
	S	mS	vsM	sM	M	S	mS	vsM	sM	M	S	mS	vsM	sM	M	S	mS	vsM	sM	M
Aponuphis bilineata	15	123	41	9	31	1	16	2
Aponuphis brementi	10	63	52	10	2		3	7	2
Aponuphis fauveli	9	40	63	10	11		4	1		3		3							1
Chaetozone caputesocis	6	16	27	10	7					1					1
Chaetozone gibber	5	6	15	11	19				1
Clymenura leiopygos	19	21	21	22	32			1					1
Diopatra neapolitana	3	2	7		8
Ditrupa arietina	1	4	24	5	6			2
Drilonereis filum	1	28	58	29	46				2			1
Eunice vittata	4	32	66	39	41
Heteromastus filiformis	6	16	42	37	54				1	3
Hyalinoecia tubicola	2	12	24	5	4
Melinna palmata	5	70	76	44	73		7	1	4	5					1
Metasychis gotoi		15	21	22	12			2	2
Nematonereis unicornis	3	49	45	20	21
Nothria conchylega	5	25	10	2	1		1		1
Onuphis eremita	12	9	3	2	10	1	1
Owenia fusiformis	56	161	57	5	3	17	10	1			4	2				3	1
Pectinaria auricoma		71	28	12	10
Sternaspis scutata	4	52	57	54	69			11	10	13				2	12				2	5

Table IV. The species-group contributions obtained from Indicator Species Analysis (ISA). The indicator values of ISA specify the groups of stations that are associated with the species with different levels of significance

Species	S	mS	vsM	sM	M	P-level
Aponuphis bilineata	1.326	25.808	6.499	0.970	-	0.000
Aponuphis brementi	0.449	4.619	16.738	0.796	0.001	0.000
Aponuphis fauveli	0.242	3.816	17.674	0.531	0.231	0.000
Caulleriella caputesocis	1.112	0.998	6.531	1.195	0.131	0.001
Caulleriella gibber	0.645	0.069	1.276	2.794	3.381	0.167
Clymenura leiopygos	4.518	0.911	5.358	3.627	0.823	0.362
Diopatra neapolitana	0.322	0.014	2.411	-	0.983	0.074
Ditrupa arietina	0.008	0.024	8.932	0.349	0.059	0.000
Drilonereis filum	0.006	0.431	11.515	8.242	3.989	0.002
Eunice vittata	0.152	1.194	12.180	8.935	2.700	0.000
Heteromastus filiformis	0.320	0.747	6.284	1.223	0.050	0.000
Hyalinoecia tubicola	0.148	0.157	11.931	11.883	3.457	0.022
Melinna palmata	0.073	3.796	7.793	13.975	8.344	0.023
Metasychis gotoi	-	0.401	5.442	8.945	0.362	0.001
Nematonereis unicornis	0.143	2.719	11.495	4.522	0.954	0.000
Nothria conchylega	0.903	5.518	0.944	0.108	0.002	0.021
Onuphis eremita	8.653	0.53	0.101	0.068	0.308	0.000
Owenia fusiformis	64.494	8.374	0.803	0.004	0.001	0.000
Pectinaria auricoma	-	14.735	3.054	1.490	0.157	0.000
Sternaspis scutata	0.034	0.229	6.068	16.599	18.048	0.002

Table V. For each species, information on biocoenoses affiliation, ecological significance, sediment typologies and depth ranges, as emerging from previous literature and from the results of this study. Results are listed in alphabetic order. Abbreviations: C = coralligenous biocoenoses, DC = biocoenoses of coastal detritic, DE = biocoenoses of muddy detritic, DL = biocoenoses of the shelf-edge detritic, SFBC = biocoenoses of well-sorted fine sand, SVMC = biocoenoses of surface muddy sands in sheltered waters, VTC = biocoenoses of coastal terrigenous mud, MI = Communities of unstable soft seabeds, excl. exclusive species, pref. = preferential species, sand tol. = species living on sands and tolerant to other fractions, mud tol. = species living on muds and tolerant to other fractions, Grav. = species living on gravely sediments, Lre = species with wide ecological distribution, Mixt. = species living on mixed sediments

SPECIES	ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS	REFERENCES	ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
	▪ Biocoenoses - ecological significance		from ISPRA’ dataset
	▪ Sediment typology		▪ Sediment typology
	▪ Depth range (vertical zonation)		▪ Depth range (m)
Aponuphis bilineata	▪ DE, Lre, Grav. ▪ very fine sand, sand, detritic sand, muddy sand, mixed sediments	Bellan 1964; Picard 1965; Giangrande & Gambi 1985; Gambi & Giangrande 1986; Bellan & Bellan-Santini 1991; Bianchi et al. 1993 b; Chimenz Gusso et al. 2001; Cosentino & Giacobbe 2008	▪ sand (S), muddy sand (mS), very sandy mud (vsM), sandy mud (sM), mud (M) ▪ 4–100 m
Aponuphis brementi	▪ Mixt.	Crema et al. 1993;	▪ sand (S), muddy sand (mS), very sandy mud (vsM), sandy mud (sM), mud (M) ▪ 5–116 m
Aponuphis fauveli	▪ DE, Mixt. ▪ Circalittoral, Bathyal	Intès & Le Loeuff 1986; Bianchi et al. 1993a, b, c; Chimenz Gusso et al. 2001	▪ sand (S), muddy sand (mS), very sandy mud (vsM), sandy mud (sM), mud (M) ▪ 5–90 m
Caulleriella caputesocis	▪ mud-tol.	Bianchi et al. 1993 b	▪ sand (S), muddy sand (mS), very sandy mud (vsM), sandy mud (sM), mud (M) ▪ 3,5–80 m
Chaetozone gibber	▪ mud ▪ Circalittoral	Cacabelos et al. 2008 ; Zaabi et al. 2009	▪ sand (S), muddy sand (mS), very sandy mud (vsM), sandy mud (sM), mud (M) ▪ 1–43 m
Clymenura leiopygos	▪ sand, muddy sand, ▪ Infralittoral	Massé 1972; Giangrande & Gambi 1985; Crema et al. 1993	▪ sand (S), muddy sand (mS), very sandy mud (vsM), sandy mud (sM), mud (M) ▪ 2,5–73 m
Diopatra neapolitana	▪ SFBC excl ▪ Sand, tolerant of small amount of mud, very sandy mud.	Bellan 1964; Picard 1965; Gambi & Giangrande 1986; Intès & Le Loeuff 1986; Bianchi et al. 1993a, b, c	▪ sand (S), muddy sand (mS), very sandy mud (vsM), mud (M) ▪ 3–22,7 m
Ditrupa arietina	▪ DC excl., DC, MI ▪ mixed sediments ▪ Circalittoral, Infralittoral	Bellan 1961; Bellan 1964; Pérès & Picard 1964; Picard 1965; Augier 1982; Gambi & Giangrande 1986; Grémare et al. 1989; Crema et al. 1993	▪ sand (S), muddy sand (mS), very sandy mud (vsM), sandy mud (sM), mud (M) ▪ 5–51 m
Drilonereis filum	▪ Lre ▪ sandy mud, mud, mixed sediments (with high fraction of sand), detritic sand, sediment with organic matter (Om) ▪ Circalittoral, Bathyal	Bellan 1964; Picard 1965; Picard 1972; Gambi & Giangrande 1986; Intès & Le Loeuff 1986; Bellan & Bellan-Santini 1991; Bianchi et al. 1993a, b, c.	▪ sand (S), muddy sand (mS), very sandy mud (vsM), sandy mud (sM), mud (M) ▪ 3–90 m
Eunice vittata	▪ C, Lre, opportunist, colonizer Detritic sediment, sand, mixed sediments, median grain size sand, sediment with organic matter (Om)	Bellan 1961; Bellan 1964; Pérès & Picard 1964; Picard 1965; Picard. 1972; Diaz-Castaňeda & Safran 1988; Bellan & Bellan-Santini 1991	▪ sand (S), muddy sand (mS), very sandy mud (vsM), sandy mud (sM), mud (M) ▪ 1,5–60 m
Heteromastus filiformis	▪ SVMC excl., companion species without specific ecological role, indicator of artificial or natural disturbance, euryhaline muddy enriched sediments ▪ eurybathic	Pérès & Picard 1964; Bellan 1964; Picard 1965; De Gaillande 1968; Picard 1972; FAO/UNEP 1986; Gravina & Somaschini 1990; Dewarumez et al. 1992, Bianchi et al. 1993a; Carvalho et al. 2005	▪ sand (S), muddy sand (mS), very sandy mud (vsM), sandy mud (sM), mud (M) ▪ 1,5–99 m
Hyalinoaecia tubicola	▪ DC pref., Mixt. ▪ muddy sand	Pérès & Picard 1964; Bellan 1964; Picard 1965; Bianchi et al. 1993a,b,c	▪ sand (S), muddy sand (mS), very sandy mud (vsM), sandy mud (sM), mud (M) ▪ 22–155 m
Melinna palmata	▪ DE ▪ Mixed sediments, muddy fine sand, sediment with organic matter (Om) ▪ Infralittoral, Circalittoral, Bathyal	Bellan 1963; Bellan 1964; Pérès 1982; Giangrande & Gambi 1985; Gambi & Giangrande 1986; Intès & Le Loeuff 1986; Hily 1987; Duineveld et al. 1991, Bianchi et al. 1993b; Dauvin 2000; Dos Santos Brasil & Gonçalves da Silva 2000	▪ sand (S), muddy sand (mS), very sandy mud (vsM), sandy mud (sM), mud (M) ▪ 17,5–100 m
Methasychis gotoi	▪ Mud	Picard 1965; Zavodnik et al. 1985, Cantone et al. 2004	▪ muddy sand (mS), very sandy mud (vsM), sandy mud (sM), mud (M) ▪ 17,5–100 m
Nematonereis unicornis	▪ DE, Mixt. MI ▪ mud, sediment with organic matter (Om), Posidonia oceanica sheaths.	Bellan 1964; Picard 1965; Drago & Arbetelli 1978; Zavodnik et al. 1985; Bellan 1985; Intès & Le Loeuff 1986; Sardà 1986; Bianchi et al. 1993a, b, c	▪ sand (S), muddy sand (mS), very sandy mud (vsM), sandy mud (sM), mud (M) ▪ 3–110 m
Nothria conchylega	▪ DL, VTC, Mixt. ▪ sandy mud ▪ Circalittoral, Bathyal	Bellan 1964; Bellan 1963; Intès & Le Loeuff 1986 ; Bianchi et al. 1993c,b,c	▪ sand (S), muddy sand (mS), very sandy mud (vsM), sandy mud (sM), mud (M) ▪ 5 –100 m
Onuphys eremita	▪ SFBC excl.	Picard 1965; Bianchi et al. 1993a	▪ sand (S), muddy sand (mS), very sandy mud (vsM), sandy mud (sM), mud (M) ▪ 4 –23 m and 90 m
Owenia fusiformis	▪ DC, SFBC ▪ Sand tol., fine sand, sandy mud, ecotonal zone enriched with organic matter ▪ Infralittoral, Circalittoral	Pérès & Picard 1964; Bellan 1964; Picard 1965; Desbruyères et al. 1972-73; Intès & Le Loeuff 1986; Abbiati et al. 1987; Hily 1987; Bianchi et al. 1993a,b,c	▪ sand (S), muddy sand (mS), very sandy mud (vsM), sandy mud (sM), mud (M) ▪ 1,5 –73 m
Pectinaria auricoma	▪ DE pref., Mixt. ▪ Mud. tol.	Picard 1965; Bellan 1964; Bianchi et al. 1993a	▪ muddy sand (mS), very sandy mud (vsM), sandy mud (sM), mud (M) ▪ 4,5 – 60,5 m
Sternaspis scutata	▪ VTC excl ▪ sandy mud ▪ Eurybathic, Circalittoral, Bathyal	Pérès & Picard 1964; Bellan 1964; Picard 1965; Picard 1972; Zavodnik et al. 1985; Gambi & Giangrande 1986;Crema et al. 1991; Bianchi et al. 1993a; Ben-Eliahu & Fiege 1995	▪ sand (S), muddy sand (mS), very sandy mud (vsM), sandy mud (sM), mud (M) ▪ 13,5 –100 m

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