Bioconstruction and biodiversity: their mutual influence*

By S. Cocito. 2004

134 citations recorded by the source corpus.

SUMMARY: This paper describes the functional role of main benthic constructor organisms and reviews processes by which bioconstructions increase diversity and abundance of associated biota, and the reverse. Based on the literature, patterns of diversity of carbonate bryozoan bioconstructions, one of the most important groups performing important constructional roles, have been analysed. Diversity of bryozoan bioconstructors seems not to follow the latitudinal gradient, from tropics to increasing distance from tropics, recognised for coral bioconstructors. The only case of a “high diversity bryozoan reef” (Joulters Cays, Bahamas) represents a situation virtually unique in carbonate environments. Dimension and extension of bryozoan bioconstructions show their maximum in temperate environments, where seasonality or variability of environmental parameters could afford advantages for success to bryozoans. With only one exception (the bryozoan-serpulid build-ups from South Australia), diversity of biota associated with bryozoan bioconstructions is high, but comparison is not possible due to the fact that exhaustive faunal studies are rare, sometimes referring only to one taxon, and environments differing in depth range, salinity, hydrodynamics, trophic diversity, etc. are involved.

Subfields: Environmental Chemistry, Global and Planetary Change, Oceanography

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/51b46cb739ae59d61030f218e8f8a0e87c2b4a5d

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Global and Planetary Change

1. J. Hall‐Spencer
2. R. Rodolfo-Metalpa
3. M. Thiel
4. Juan C. Astudillo
5. M. Bravo
6. M. Gambi
7. C. Dumont

In Oceanography

1. J. Hall‐Spencer
2. R. Rodolfo-Metalpa
3. M. Thiel
4. M. Gambi
5. J. Waters

Citations in the corpus

• Effects of ocean acidification and high temperatures on the bryozoan Myriapora truncata at natural CO2 vents (2010, background): “To address this, we undertake the first examination of the response of bryozoans to ocean acidification, as they play an important ecological role as they can increase habitat heterogeneity and species diversity (Cocito 2004; Ballesteros 2006).”
• Detached aquaculture buoys in the SE Pacific: Potential dispersal vehicles for associated organisms (2009, background): “…colonized by fouling organisms considered as eco-engineers (e.g. bryozoans, barnacles and solitary tunicates), which create ample habitat for mobile species that otherwise could not colonize the smooth surface of plastic buoys (Tsikhon-Lukanina et al. 2001, Cocito 2004, Greene & Grizzle 2007).”