Publication
Structure of sessile fouling assemblages on pontoons in marinas differs between brackish and marine salinities
| Summary: | The number of recreational marinas has recently increased due to the growing demand for leisure boating. Floating pontoons of marinas provide novel habitats to fouling assemblages, specially to sessile habitat-forming species, that increase heterogeneity creating new habitats for mobile and sessile epibionts. Therefore, sessile species play a crucial role in sustaining biodiversity in urban areas. Despite the relevance of sessile fouling assemblages, the role of environmental factors in shaping the structure of these assemblages has not been comprehensively studied. In the present study, the abundance, richness and multivariate structure of sessile fouling assemblages associated with floating pontoons were studied in marinas under two different environmental conditions (brackish and marine), and the influence of environmental variables (salinity, temperature and dissolved oxygen) on fouling assemblages was tested. Our results showed that univariate variables and assemblage composition significantly differed between environments, with lower values of abundance and richness under brackish conditions. This pattern could result from the influence of freshwater inputs in brackish marinas, that also showed a higher level of multivariate dispersion. Results also pointed out that salinity was the most important factor, explaining 46 %, 56 % and 37 % of abundance, richness and multivariate structure of sessile fouling assemblage, respectively. The sessile assemblage in marine and brackish marinas was dominated in terms of abundance by the native habitat-forming species Mytilus galloprovincialis, which harboured most of the collected sessile epibiont species. These findings highlight the role of floating pontoons to support sessile invertebrates in urban areas where biodiversity may be heavily impacted. |
|---|---|
| Main Authors: | Fernandez-Gutierrez, Jesús |
| Other Authors: | Rubal, Marcos; Ramil, Fran; Moreira, Juan; Sampaio, Leandro; Sousa-pinto, Isabel; Veiga, Puri |
| Subject: | Artificial structures Atlantic ocean Biodiversity Invertebrates North Portugal Urban ecosystems |
| Year: | 2025 |
| Country: | Portugal |
| Document type: | article |
| Access type: | open access |
| Associated institution: | Universidade do Minho |
| Language: | English |
| Origin: | RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho |
| _version_ | 1877776500745306112 |
|---|---|
| author | Fernandez-Gutierrez, Jesús |
| author2 | Rubal, Marcos Ramil, Fran Moreira, Juan Sampaio, Leandro Sousa-pinto, Isabel Veiga, Puri |
| author2_role | author author author author author author |
| author_facet | Fernandez-Gutierrez, Jesús Rubal, Marcos Ramil, Fran Moreira, Juan Sampaio, Leandro Sousa-pinto, Isabel Veiga, Puri |
| author_role | author |
| contributor_name_str_mv | Universidade do Minho |
| country_str | PT |
| creators_json_txt | [{\"Person.name\":\"Fernandez-Gutierrez, Jesús\"},{\"Person.name\":\"Rubal, Marcos\"},{\"Person.name\":\"Ramil, Fran\"},{\"Person.name\":\"Moreira, Juan\"},{\"Person.name\":\"Sampaio, Leandro\"},{\"Person.name\":\"Sousa-pinto, Isabel\"},{\"Person.name\":\"Veiga, Puri\"}] |
| datacite.contributors.contributor.contributorName.fl_str_mv | Universidade do Minho |
| datacite.creators.creator.creatorName.fl_str_mv | Fernandez-Gutierrez, Jesús Rubal, Marcos Ramil, Fran Moreira, Juan Sampaio, Leandro Sousa-pinto, Isabel Veiga, Puri |
| datacite.date.Accepted.fl_str_mv | 2025-07-28T00:00:00Z |
| datacite.rights.fl_str_mv | http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 |
| datacite.subjects.subject.fl_str_mv | Artificial structures Atlantic ocean Biodiversity Invertebrates North Portugal Urban ecosystems |
| datacite.titles.title.fl_str_mv | Structure of sessile fouling assemblages on pontoons in marinas differs between brackish and marine salinities |
| dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv | Universidade do Minho |
| dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv | Fernandez-Gutierrez, Jesús Rubal, Marcos Ramil, Fran Moreira, Juan Sampaio, Leandro Sousa-pinto, Isabel Veiga, Puri |
| dc.date.Accepted.fl_str_mv | 2025-07-28T00:00:00Z |
| dc.format.none.fl_str_mv | application/pdf |
| dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv | https://hdl.handle.net/1822/100518 |
| dc.language.none.fl_str_mv | eng |
| dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv | Elsevier |
| dc.rights.cclincense.fl_str_mv | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv | http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 |
| dc.rights.rights.copyright.fl_str_mv | openAccess |
| dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv | Artificial structures Atlantic ocean Biodiversity Invertebrates North Portugal Urban ecosystems |
| dc.title.fl_str_mv | Structure of sessile fouling assemblages on pontoons in marinas differs between brackish and marine salinities |
| dc.type.none.fl_str_mv | http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 |
| description | The number of recreational marinas has recently increased due to the growing demand for leisure boating. Floating pontoons of marinas provide novel habitats to fouling assemblages, specially to sessile habitat-forming species, that increase heterogeneity creating new habitats for mobile and sessile epibionts. Therefore, sessile species play a crucial role in sustaining biodiversity in urban areas. Despite the relevance of sessile fouling assemblages, the role of environmental factors in shaping the structure of these assemblages has not been comprehensively studied. In the present study, the abundance, richness and multivariate structure of sessile fouling assemblages associated with floating pontoons were studied in marinas under two different environmental conditions (brackish and marine), and the influence of environmental variables (salinity, temperature and dissolved oxygen) on fouling assemblages was tested. Our results showed that univariate variables and assemblage composition significantly differed between environments, with lower values of abundance and richness under brackish conditions. This pattern could result from the influence of freshwater inputs in brackish marinas, that also showed a higher level of multivariate dispersion. Results also pointed out that salinity was the most important factor, explaining 46 %, 56 % and 37 % of abundance, richness and multivariate structure of sessile fouling assemblage, respectively. The sessile assemblage in marine and brackish marinas was dominated in terms of abundance by the native habitat-forming species Mytilus galloprovincialis, which harboured most of the collected sessile epibiont species. These findings highlight the role of floating pontoons to support sessile invertebrates in urban areas where biodiversity may be heavily impacted. |
| dirty | 0 |
| eu_rights_str_mv | openAccess |
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| person_str_mv | Fernandez-Gutierrez, Jesús Rubal, Marcos Ramil, Fran Moreira, Juan Sampaio, Leandro Sousa-pinto, Isabel Veiga, Puri |
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| spelling | engElsevierengThe number of recreational marinas has recently increased due to the growing demand for leisure boating. Floating pontoons of marinas provide novel habitats to fouling assemblages, specially to sessile habitat-forming species, that increase heterogeneity creating new habitats for mobile and sessile epibionts. Therefore, sessile species play a crucial role in sustaining biodiversity in urban areas. Despite the relevance of sessile fouling assemblages, the role of environmental factors in shaping the structure of these assemblages has not been comprehensively studied. In the present study, the abundance, richness and multivariate structure of sessile fouling assemblages associated with floating pontoons were studied in marinas under two different environmental conditions (brackish and marine), and the influence of environmental variables (salinity, temperature and dissolved oxygen) on fouling assemblages was tested. Our results showed that univariate variables and assemblage composition significantly differed between environments, with lower values of abundance and richness under brackish conditions. This pattern could result from the influence of freshwater inputs in brackish marinas, that also showed a higher level of multivariate dispersion. Results also pointed out that salinity was the most important factor, explaining 46 %, 56 % and 37 % of abundance, richness and multivariate structure of sessile fouling assemblage, respectively. The sessile assemblage in marine and brackish marinas was dominated in terms of abundance by the native habitat-forming species Mytilus galloprovincialis, which harboured most of the collected sessile epibiont species. These findings highlight the role of floating pontoons to support sessile invertebrates in urban areas where biodiversity may be heavily impacted.application/pdfengStructure of sessile fouling assemblages on pontoons in marinas differs between brackish and marine salinitiesFernandez-Gutierrez, JesúsRubal, MarcosRamil, FranMoreira, JuanSampaio, LeandroSousa-pinto, IsabelVeiga, PuriHostingInstitutionOrganizationalUniversidade do Minhoe-mailmailto:repositorium@usdb.uminho.ptrepositorium@usdb.uminho.ptCITATIONFernández-Gutiérrez, J., Rubal, M., Ramil, F., Moreira, J., Sampaio, L., Sousa-Pinto, I., & Veiga, P. (2025). Structure of sessile fouling assemblages on pontoons in marinas differs between brackish and marine salinities. Marine Environmental Research, 211, 107409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2025.107409PMID40752080ISSNIsPartOf0141-1136DOIIsPartOf10.1016/j.marenvres.2025.107409URLHasVersionhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S01411136250046602025-07-282025-07-28T00:00:00ZHandlehttps://hdl.handle.net/1822/100518http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2open accessArtificial structuresAtlantic oceanBiodiversityInvertebratesNorth PortugalUrban ecosystems2483567 bytesFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.Melhorando o estado ecológico das marinas utilizando florestas animais como soluções baseadas na natureza [2022.06806.PTDC]Concurso de Projetos de I&D em Todos os Domínios Científicos - 2022 - PEXConcurso de Projetos de I&D em Todos os Domínios Científicos - 2022https://hdl.handle.net/1822/1005142022.06806.PTDCCrossref Funder IDhttp://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research [UIDB/04423/2020]Concurso de avaliação no âmbito do Programa Plurianual de Financiamento de Unidades de I&D (2017/2018) - Financiamento Basehttps://hdl.handle.net/1822/99668UIDB/04423/2020Crossref Funder IDhttp://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research [UIDP/04423/2020]Concurso de avaliação no âmbito do Programa Plurianual de Financiamento de Unidades de I&D (2017/2018) - Financiamento Programáticohttps://hdl.handle.net/1822/99669UIDP/04423/2020Crossref Funder IDhttp://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.Aquatic Research Infrastructure Network [LA/P/0069/2020]Concurso para Atribuição do Estatuto e Financiamento de Laboratórios Associados (LA)https://hdl.handle.net/1822/97504LA/P/0069/2020Crossref Funder IDhttp://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.Centre of Molecular and Environmental Biology [UID/04050/2025]Avaliação UID 2023/2024https://hdl.handle.net/1822/99756UID/04050/2025Crossref Funder IDhttp://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.Improving the ecological state of marine ecosystems applying ecosystem-engineers as nature-based solution [2023.08939.CEECIND/CP2848/CT0002]CEEC IND6edhttps://hdl.handle.net/1822/1003332023.08939.CEECIND/CP2848/CT0002Crossref Funder IDhttp://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.Ecosystem engineers as natural based solution for marine habitats under severe anthropogenic disturbances [CEECINST/00018/2021/CP2806/CT0021]CEEC INST 2edhttps://hdl.handle.net/1822/100334CEECINST/00018/2021/CP2806/CT0021Crossref Funder IDhttp://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.Knowing and improving the ecological state of recreational marinas by using ecosystem engineers as nature-based solutions [2023.04100.BD]https://hdl.handle.net/1822/1005152023.04100.BDCrossref Funder IDhttp://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871literaturehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501journal article2025-07-28http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/openAccesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2application/pdfhttps://repositorium.uminho.pt/bitstreams/b3a79c88-c107-4e60-b3ed-e912e20fdc56/download |
| spellingShingle | Structure of sessile fouling assemblages on pontoons in marinas differs between brackish and marine salinities Fernandez-Gutierrez, Jesús Artificial structures Atlantic ocean Biodiversity Invertebrates North Portugal Urban ecosystems |
| status | SINGLETON |
| subject.fl_str_mv | Artificial structures Atlantic ocean Biodiversity Invertebrates North Portugal Urban ecosystems |
| title | Structure of sessile fouling assemblages on pontoons in marinas differs between brackish and marine salinities |
| title_full | Structure of sessile fouling assemblages on pontoons in marinas differs between brackish and marine salinities |
| title_fullStr | Structure of sessile fouling assemblages on pontoons in marinas differs between brackish and marine salinities |
| title_full_unstemmed | Structure of sessile fouling assemblages on pontoons in marinas differs between brackish and marine salinities |
| title_short | Structure of sessile fouling assemblages on pontoons in marinas differs between brackish and marine salinities |
| title_sort | Structure of sessile fouling assemblages on pontoons in marinas differs between brackish and marine salinities |
| topic | Artificial structures Atlantic ocean Biodiversity Invertebrates North Portugal Urban ecosystems |
| topic_facet | Artificial structures Atlantic ocean Biodiversity Invertebrates North Portugal Urban ecosystems |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1822/100518 |
| visible | 1 |