Species richness and functional attributes of fish assemblages across a large-scale salinity gradient in shallow coastal areas

Koehler, Birgit; Erlandsson, Mårten; Karlsson, Martin; Bergström, Lena

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-2295-2022

Articles | Volume 19, issue 8

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-2295-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-2295-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 8

Research article

|

29 Apr 2022

Research article |

| 29 Apr 2022

Species richness and functional attributes of fish assemblages across a large-scale salinity gradient in shallow coastal areas

Birgit Koehler, Mårten Erlandsson, Martin Karlsson, and Lena Bergström

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-2295-2022-supplement

Data sets

Species Observation System Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences https://www.slu.se/en/departments/aquatic-resources1/databases/database-for-coastal-fish-kul/

Species Observation System Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences https://www.artportalen.se/ViewSighting/SearchSighting

National archive for oceanographic and marine biological data Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute https://www.smhi.se/en/services/open-data/national-archive-for-oceanographic-data

FishBase R. Froese and D. Pauly https://fishbase.mnhn.fr/search.php

EU Copernicus Marine Service Information CMEMS https://resources.marine.copernicus.eu/product-detail/BALTICSEA_REANALYSIS_PHY_003_011/INFORMATION

Water Information System Sweden The Competent Authorities of the Swedish Water Districts, the County Administrative Boards, and the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management https://viss.lansstyrelsen.se/Maps.aspx

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Short summary

Understanding species richness patterns remains a challenge for biodiversity management. We estimated fish species richness over a coastal salinity gradient (3–32) with a method that allowed comparing data from various sources. Species richness was 3-fold higher at high vs. low salinity, and salinity influenced species’ habitat preference, mobility and feeding type. If climate change causes upper-layer freshening of the Baltic Sea, further shifts along the identified patterns may be expected.