The macrozoobenthic community of the Santa Gilla lagoon (Southern Sardinia, Italy)

Abstract

1 - Macrozoobenthos is one of the most significant communities of hydrobionts for assessing the ecological state of a water body. In spite of its importance, only few data concerning the macrobenthic community of Santa Gilla lagoon are available;
2 - Santa Gilla is one of the most important wetlands in Sardinia. The aim of this study is to give data on species composition of its macrozoobenthic community;
3 - Sampling has been carried out in 2010-2011 in July, October, January and April, in three stations located along a salinity gradient and the main environmental parameters were measured;
4 - A total of 13031 specimens belonging to 92 taxonomic groups and 5 main phyla (Anellida, Mollusca, Arthropoda, Cnidaria and Nemertea) were found. Among them, 52 different taxa were collected and pointed out for the first time in Santa Gilla lagoon in this work.
5 - Finally, seasonal and space differences were observed in the abundance values of the main taxonomic groups and in the diversity indices values.