POTENTIAL AND REALIZED DIVERSITY OF COASTAL PLANKTON: THE ROLE OF RESTING STAGES IN ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING

Diversidade potencial e realizada do plâncton costeiro: o papel dos estágios de repouso no funcionamento do ecossistema

Authors

  • Genuario Belmonte Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, University of the Salento, Campus Ecotekne, 73100 Lecce, Italy.
  • Fernando Rubino Water Research Institute, Unit Talassografico ‘A. Cerruti’, National Research Council, via Roma 3, 74123 Taranto, Italy

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32360/acmar.v55iEspecial.78207

Abstract

Resting stages are the strategy for species to avoid the variability of environmental conditions. In coastal confined marine habitats, variability of conditions is higher than in the open sea, and bottoms accumulate plankton resting stages in the so-called “marine cyst banks”. The benthic-pelagic coupling generated by this bi-location of plankton, however, is not clearly evident for all the involved species. This result is due to the still scant knowledge of the life cycles and life histories of single species. The study of plankton dynamics from the benthos point of view is useful and informative and it increases the potential complexity of a planktonic community in a confined area.

Keywords: plankton, life cycles, resting stages, cysts, benthic-pelagic coupling, resurrection ecology.

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Published

2022-03-21