Browsing by Subject "Benthos"

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    Cyanobacteria and Macroinvertebrate Relationships in Freshwater Benthic Communities beyond Cytotoxicity
    (MDPI, 2024-04-15) Ubero Pascal, Nicolás; Aboal Sanjurjo, Marina; Zoología y Antropología Física
    Cyanobacteria are harmful algae that are monitored worldwide to prevent the effects of the toxins that they can produce. Most research efforts have focused on direct or indirect effects on human populations, with a view to gain easy accurate detection and quantification methods, mainly in planktic communities, but with increasing interest shown in benthos. However, cyanobacteria have played a fundamental role from the very beginning in both the development of our planet’s biodiversity and the construction of new habitats. These organisms have colonized almost every possible planktic or benthic environment on earth, including the most extreme ones, and display a vast number of adaptations. All this explains why they are the most important or the only phototrophs in some habitats. The negative effects of cyanotoxins on macroinvertebrates have been demonstrated, but usually under conditions that are far from natural, and on forms of exposure, toxin concentration, or composition. The cohabitation of cyanobacteria with most invertebrate groups is long-standing and has probably contributed to the development of detoxification means, which would explain the survival of some species inside cyanobacteria colonies. This review focuses on benthic cyanobacteria, their capacity to produce several types of toxins, and their relationships with benthic macroinvertebrates beyond toxicity.
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    Grupos de especies asociadas en los moluscos Bentónicos de fondos duros del litoral catalán
    (Murcia: Universidad de Murcia, Servicio de Publicaciones, 1986) Ros Aragonés, Joandomènec; Facultad de Biología
    From the data of the PROGRAMA DE BENTOS (1972-74) samples, corresponding to six localities on the Catalan coast (Mediterranean Sea, hard substrates between O and 40 m in depth), the presence of groups of ecologically associated molluscan species is studied. Two methods have been used: a similarity index between species and a principal component analysis. Of the formed groups, some have a clear ecological or bionomic meaning, whereas others are not easy to interpret. The reduced number of species used in the analyses (only 56 of the total 189 in the similarity index, and only 21 in the principal component analysis) is the main factor blumng somewhat these results. The meaning of the obtained groups is discussed; they are also compared with the molluscan groups found in other studies: that of the benthos of Medes lslands (one of the previously studied localities), and of other Mediterranean littoral areas.