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Observations on size-structure and pelagic coupling of some shelf and abyssal benthic communities
Schwinghamer, P. (1985). Observations on size-structure and pelagic coupling of some shelf and abyssal benthic communities, in: Gibbs, P.E. (Ed.) Proceedings of the 19th European Marine Biology Symposium, Plymouth, Devon, UK, 16-21 September 1984. pp. 347-360
In: Gibbs, P.E. (Ed.) (1985). Proceedings of the Nineteenth European Marine Biology Symposium, Plymouth, Devon, UK, 16-21 September 1984. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. ISBN 0-521-30294-3. 541 pp., more

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Document type: Conference paper

Keyword
    Marine/Coastal

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  • Schwinghamer, P.

Abstract
    Recent studies of biomass spectra in coastal benthic communities have indicated that size structure is a conservative and predicatble feature of community organisation and an indicator of dynamics. Data from the Nares Abyssal Plain and the Scotian Shelf broaden the base of these conclusions. The biomass spectra of the Nares samples, taken from depths of 4700-5850m, are similar in shape to spectra from shallower sediments of similar granulometry but biomass levels are lower than expected of similar sediments in coastal areas. Comparison of shallow-water and deep-water biomass spectra reveals no tendency towards smaller average size with increasing depth that cannot be explained by sediment granulometry rather than by food supply or by water depth. Some evolutionar and ecological implications of these observations are discussed, espcially with regard to benthic pelagic coupling.

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