Macrozoobenthic Diversity in the Southern Baltic

The absolute number of macrozoobenthic species and the percentage of limnic species in the 16 subunits of the southern Baltic Sea is shown in Fig. 17.4. In general the number of 

FIGURE 17.3 The progressive development of macrozoobenthos investigation activity and data collection in the southern Baltic Sea within the past 180 years. The first and the last data entry year were 1839 and 2006, respectively. (Note the logarithmic scale of x axis ). 

FIGURE 17.4 Total number of macrozoobenthic species in the 16 subunits (see Fig. 17.1) of the southern Baltic Sea and mean salinities ( maximum and minimum). The percentage of limnic species is indicated by dark gray color. 

In a comparable Danish study (3602 samples distributed on 26 Danish areas over 4 years) a total of 510 taxa were found (Josefson and Hansen, 2004). As in German Baltic waters, annelids were also the most abundant taxon followed by arthropods and molluscs. Owing to 

FIGURE 17.6 Macrozoobenthos composition in the southern Baltic Sea based on historical (literature) and recent (lOW) data collected between 1839 and 2006. 

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