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Humans benefit from a variety of ecosystem services provided by seagrass
meadows. However, seagrass conservation efforts appear to be insufficient,
as evidenced by its low representation in marine protected areas around
the world. Protecting seagrasses benefits not just the seagrass itself,
but also the macrobenthic invertebrate assemblages that dwell beside it
and contribute indirectly to the various environmental services through
their functions. Studies comparing seagrass-associated invertebrate
assemblages and functional trait composition within and outside marine
protected areas are uncommon, so the current study compares invertebrate
assemblages and functional trait composition from a marine protected area
(Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park) and an adjacent non-marine protected
area (Palk Bay) along the southeast coast of India. The species richness
(mean S = 83.3) and density (mean D = 6276.6) of seagrass-associated
macromolluscs were higher in marine protected areas than in non-marine
protected areas (mean S = 54.6, mean D = 5264.0), but not the species
diversity (mean H’ = 2.1 for marine protected areas, mean H’ = 2.0 for
non-marine protected areas). Protected seagrass ecosystems, on the other
hand, exhibited much higher species richness within functional groups
(i.e., deposit feeders (mean S = 5.5), micro-/macro-grazers (21.7),
predators (34.8), ectoparasites (2.1) and suspension feeders (19.3)),
suggesting that the protection status supports functional redundancy. The
study's findings reveal the importance of protection status in
enhancing macromollusc assemblages in seagrass ecosystems, which improves
the ecosystem's resilience and function.
97 views reported since publication in 2022.