Spatial patterns of macrofaunal community structure in coastal lagoons of Uruguay

A research paper investigating the spatio-temporal variability of macro benthic communities across five main coastal lagoons in Uruguay, finding that spatial variation between lagoons outweighs short-term temporal variability.

• The study analyzed macro benthic communities in five main coastal lagoons in Uruguay during February, May, August, and November 2005, across three spatial scales: lagoons, sites, and replicates. The resulting benthic community was characterized by high dominance and a low number of species.
• The most significant difference in community structure was found between the closed, eutrophic lagoon Diario and other lagoons that have intermittent connections to the ocean. Ocean-land gradients were observed within all studied lagoons.
• Community structure variability was highest at the largest scale (among lagoons) and the smallest scale (among replicates), suggesting both large- and small-scale processes influence spatial patterns. The primary environmental drivers were conductivity, total suspended solids, sediment organic matter, macrophyte total biomass, and phytobenthic chlorophyll a. Short-term temporal variability accounted for a small fraction of total variation compared to spatial variation between lagoons.

APA

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (2025). Spatial patterns of macrofaunal community structure in coastal lagoons of Uruguay. https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/spatial-patterns-of-macrofaunal-community-structure-in-coastal-lagoons-of-uruguay/

Chicago

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. Spatial patterns of macrofaunal community structure in coastal lagoons of Uruguay. 2025. https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/spatial-patterns-of-macrofaunal-community-structure-in-coastal-lagoons-of-uruguay/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research |title=Spatial patterns of macrofaunal community structure in coastal lagoons of Uruguay |date=17 January 2025 |url=https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/spatial-patterns-of-macrofaunal-community-structure-in-coastal-lagoons-of-uruguay/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{interamericaninstituteforglobalchangeresearch2025spatial, author = {{Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}}, title = {{Spatial patterns of macrofaunal community structure in coastal lagoons of Uruguay}}, institution = {Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}, year = {2025}, month = jan, url = {https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/spatial-patterns-of-macrofaunal-community-structure-in-coastal-lagoons-of-uruguay/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }