Cost/benefit and the effect of sample preservation procedures on quantitative patterns in benthic ecology
2017
Some benthic assemblages studies have tested the effects of different
preservationprocedures on biomass, but their influence on quantitative patterns (number of species and abundance) is still unclear. We evaluated the influence of two sample
preservationprocedures on quantitative patterns in benthic ecology. Ten sampling points were systematically interspersed on two types of sediment (sandy and muddy). At each sediment type, samples from five sampling points were fixed in 10% formalin, and the other five points were
preservedin 70% ethanol (without previous fixation). Three replicates were collected at each sampling point, and samples were washed in 0.5 mesh size and sorted in laboratory. A cost/benefit analysis was performed considering the washing time in laboratory and the costs of substances. A total of 1970 individuals were collected (muddy sediment: 132; sandy sediment: 1838), belonging to 121 taxa (muddy: 49; sandy: 83). Assemblages
preservedin ethanol were composed of 795 individuals and 80 taxa, while those fixed with formalin had 1173 individuals and 94 taxa. Polychaeta predominated as the most abundant group for both
preservationprocedures. For the whole benthic community, significant differences occurred only between sediment types. Significant differences in the number of individuals of
polychaeteswere observed for the different
preservationprocedures in sandy sediment. Ethanol has the best cost/benefit ratio in both sediment types due to additional costs to attend safety requirements for formalin-fixed samples. Further studies should evaluate how quantitative patterns are affected by exposure time of
preservation, anesthesia interaction, and morphological deformations (e.g. impossibility of identification).
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