🌊 Exploring Indicator Species: Unraveling the World Below

In our last post, we delved into the fascinating realm of indicator species, focusing on a specific group. But what exactly are indicator species?

Most species thrive within specific environmental conditions, showcasing distinct tolerance levels to desiccation, heat, salinity, and chemical pollutants. The tolerance to stressors plays a crucial role in determining a species’ population extent, such as how high a sessile species can live on a rock.

Indicator species often boast a higher tolerance to disturbances, chemical pollutants, and other human-induced factors. For instance, species in the genus Capitella exhibit greater tolerance to Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) and other chemicals, making them more prevalent in environments with high levels of H2S due to lacking competition.

Now, let’s shift gears and explore another essential indicator species group – those belonging to the genus Prionospio.

In New Zealand, we’ve identified almost 20 species of Prionospio, with ongoing discussions about some yet-to-be-described species. For example, Ocean Wolf’s founder is in an ongoing exchange with colleagues from Harvard University, Victoria Museum Melbourne, and the Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales about the presence of a species only once described in Australia.

Sadly, many rely solely on the presence, absence, shape, or length of individual gills for identification, which can be unreliable. Gills can break, regrow, and vary based on environmental conditions, leading to misinterpretations of species diversity. Further, because of the lack of gills and without consideration of other characters in many benthic monitoring projects, only up to six of the many species were identified, and the remaining individuals will be counted as unidentified Prionospio spp..

Surprisingly, despite having multiple species in the Prionospio genus, there’s no evidence indicating that certain species have distinct indicator qualities beyond indicating properties of the genus. Hence, the differentiation between species is unnecessary and costly and can create biases in biodiversity indexes as other individuals are often only identified as Family or higher level. Such bias could lead to the misinterpretation of the environmental state due to the presumed higher diversity of this group of indicators.

Moreover, identifying Prionospio species may inadvertently overlook their separation from another genus, Paraprionospio, which possesses different indicating properties.

In benthic monitoring projects, correct science matters; if you’re working on benthic monitoring projects or want to learn more, contact Ocean Wolf at www.ocean-wolf.com.

Let’s unravel the mysteries beneath the surface together! 🌐🔍 #BenthicMonitoring #IndicatorSpecies #OceanConservation