Variation of a sandy beach macrobenthic community along a human-induced environmental gradient

Among the diverse sources of impact on sandy coasts, man-made freshwater flows and discharges of sewage effluents strongly modify environmental quality by changing salinity and nutrient regimes. However, sandy beaches, which occupy three-quarters of the world’s shoreline, have received relatively little attention concerning consequences of this human-induced disturbance on the structure and dynamics of resident fauna. This paper reports the spatial effects of a freshwater canal discharge (Canal Andreoni) on the habitat and resident macrobenthos of an exposed sandy beach through a combined analysis of communities, populations and the surrounding habitat in three sites defined by previous studies as undisturbed (Barra), moderately disturbed (Coronilla) and grossly disturbed (Andreoni). Andreoni showed significant lower values of salinity, beach width, swash width and slope. Abundance, biomass, species richness, diversity and evenness significantly decreased towards the source of disturbance and were significantly and positively correlated with spatial variations in salinity. Multiple regressions explained up to 36% of the variability, often resulting in models composed by only one significant predictor, salinity, which can be considered as an aggregate variable that carries itself with different simultaneous effects in the nearshore-surf zone environment. The cirolanid isopod Excirolana armata generally dominated all sites in abundance, but at significantly lower values in the grossly disturbed site. The suspension feeders Donax hanleyanus and Emerita brasiliensis, which were well represented at Barra and Coronilla, did not occur in Andreoni, where insects were the most commonly represented after E. armata. In addition, the number of species and abundance of polychaetes tended to decrease towards the canal mouth, with the exception of punctual pulses of abundance of Scolelepis gaucha at Coronilla. In terms of biomass, the isopod E. armata dominated at Andreoni and Coronilla, whereas the suspension feeders D. hanleyanus and E. brasiliensis dominated at Barra. It is concluded that artificial freshwater discharges could significantly influence the distribution, abundance and community attributes of the biota of sandy beaches, and that further study of these ecosystems should include human activities as important factors affecting spatial and temporal trends. The combination of natural experiments together with macrocosm field and microcosm laboratory experiments is also suggested as a rich research vein for detecting the extent of disturbances in sandy beaches.