@article {5366, title = {Regional and latitudinal patterns of soft-bottom macrobenthic invertebrates along French coasts: Results from the RESOMAR database}, journal = {Journal of Sea Research}, volume = {130}, year = {2017}, pages = {96 - 106}, abstract = {

This study aims to describe the patterns of soft bottom macrozoobenthic richness along French coasts. It is based on a collaborative database developed by the {\textquotedblleft}R{\'e}seau des Stations et Observatoires Marins{\textquotedblright} (RESOMAR). We investigated patterns of species richness in sublittoral soft bottom habitats (EUNIS level 3) at two different spatial scales: 1) seaboards: English Channel, Bay of Biscay and Mediterranean Sea and 2) 0.5{\textdegree} latitudinal and longitudinal grid. Total observed richness, rarefaction curves and three incidence-based richness estimators (Chao2, ICE and Jacknife1) were used to compare soft bottom habitats species richness in each seaboard. Overall, the Mediterranean Sea has the highest richness and despite higher sampling effort, the English Channel hosts the lowest number of species. The distribution of species occurrence within and between seaboards was assessed for each major phylum using constrained rarefaction curves. The Mediterranean Sea hosts the highest number of exclusive species. In pairwise comparisons, it also shares a lower proportion of taxa with the Bay of Biscay (34.1\%) or the English Channel (27.6\%) than that shared between these two seaboards (49.7\%). Latitudinal species richness patterns along the Atlantic and English Channel coasts were investigated for each major phylum using partial LOESS regression controlling for sampling effort. This showed the existence of a bell-shaped latitudinal pattern, highlighting Brittany as a hotspot for macrobenthic richness at the confluence of two biogeographic provinces.

}, keywords = {France, Latitudinal pattern, Regional pattern, Soft-bottom, Species richness, Zoobenthos}, issn = {1385-1101}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seares.2017.03.011}, url = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1385110116302660}, author = {R{\'e}gis K. Gallon and Nicolas Lavesque and Jacques Grall and C{\'e}line Labrune and Antoine Gr{\'e}mare and Guy Bachelet and Hugues Blanchet and Paulo Bonif{\'a}cio and Vincent M.P. Bouchet and Jean-Claude Dauvin and Nicolas Desroy and Franck Gentil and Laurent Guerin and C{\'e}line Houbin and J{\'e}r{\^o}me Jourde and Sandrine Laurand and Michel Le Duff and Vincent Le Garrec and Xavier de Montaudouin and Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric Olivier and Francis Orvain and Pierre-Guy Sauriau and Eric Thi{\'e}baut and Olivier Gauthier} }