众所周知,在世界范围内,Rhodolith床具有多种分类群的高生物多样性。尽管它们很重要,很少有生态数据探讨了罗石特征和环境变量对相关生物多样性的影响,这一差距一直阻碍着多样性热点和优先保护区域的映射。在这项研究中,我们调查了罗石床及其相关动物区系的大规模空间变化,使用环状多毛类作为生物模型。我们的目标是识别代理,基于Rhodolith的特征和环境变量,探测西南大西洋各床的生物多样性热点,为绘制优先保护区域奠定基础。有了这个目标,我们在七个地点共采样了136个罗石结节,床在不同的纬度下,深度,距离巴西大陆海岸,和Rhodolith密度。对于每个采样的结节,我们测量了体积,直径,大量的泥沙被困,以及相关多毛类的属性(丰度,丰富,多样性,和组成)。我们的结果揭示了一个复杂的网络,即rhodolith特征和大多数多毛类属性之间的共线性和协同作用(即,丰度,多样性,和组成)。多毛丰富度,相比之下,可以通过两个代理的组合来解释:(1)罗石结节直径和(2)罗石床与大陆海岸的距离。近岸红石床和较大的结节与较高的丰富度相关。此外,具有中空形态的杜鹃石也与较高的多毛丰富度相关。这些结果表明,具有大结节和空心结节的近岸rhodolith床可能是保护的优先区域。然而,仍然需要使用我们的框架进行进一步的多分类单元研究,以探索其他区域和规模,描绘更全面的代理,以预测与红宝石相关的动物区系的生态模式,并确定西南大西洋河床的保护优先事项。
Rhodolith beds are known worldwide to host high biodiversity to several taxa. Despite their importance, few ecological data explored the influence of rhodolith features and environmental variables on associated biodiversity, a gap that has been hampering the mapping of diversity hotspots and priority areas for conservation. In this study, we investigated large-scale spatial variations of rhodolith beds and their associated fauna, using annelid polychaetes as a biological model. We aimed to identify proxies, based on rhodolith features and environmental variables, to detect biodiversity hotspots across Southwestern Atlantic beds, laying the groundwork for mapping priority areas for conservation. With this goal, we sampled a total of 136 rhodolith nodules across seven sites with beds under distinct latitudes, depths, distances from the mainland coast of Brazil, and rhodolith densities. For each nodule sampled, we measured the volume, diameter, and mass of sediment trapped, as well as the attributes of the associated polychaetes (abundance, richness, diversity, and composition). Our results revealed a complex network of collinearities and synergisms between the rhodolith features and the majority of the polychaetes attributes (i.e., abundance, diversity, and composition). Polychaete richness, in contrast, can be explained by the combination of two proxies: (1) rhodolith nodule diameter and (2) distance of the rhodolith bed from the mainland coast. Nearshore rhodolith beds and larger nodules were associated with higher values of richness. Additionally, rhodoliths with a hollow morphology were also associated with higher values of polychaete richness. These results suggest that nearshore rhodolith beds with large and hollow nodules could be priority areas for conservation. However, further multi-taxa studies using our framework are still needed to explore other regions and scales, delineating more comprehensive proxies for predicting ecological patterns of the rhodoliths associated fauna and to identify priorities for conservation across Southwestern Atlantic beds.