Marine long-term biodiversity assessment suggests loss of rare species in the Skagerrak and Kattegat region

• DOI: 10.1007/s12526-017-0749-5
• Publication Date: 2017-06-23T19:01:16Z
• Authors: Matthias Obst; Saverio Vicario; Kennet Lundin; Matz Berggren; Anna Karlsson; Robert Haines; Alan Williams; Carole Goble; Cherian Mathew; Anton Güntsch
• Keywords: Marine ecosystem; Rare species

Studies of cumulative and long-term effects human activities in the ocean are essential for developing realistic conservation targets. Here, we report results a recent national marine biodiversity inventory along Swedish West coast between 2004 2009. The expedition revisited many historical localities that have been sampled with same methods early twentieth century. We generated comparable datasets from our own investigation data to compare species richness, abundance, geographic distribution diversity. Our analysis indicates benthic ecosystems region lost large part its original richness over last seven decades. find evidence especially rare disappeared. This process has caused more homogenized community structure diminished hotspots. argue contemporary lack Kattegat Skagerrak offers less opportunity respond environmental perturbations future suggest improving poor representation region. study shows value inventories as well natural history collections investigations accumulated anthropogenic re-establishing species-rich, productive, resilient ecosystems.