Feeding grounds for waders in the Bay of the Mont Saint-Michel (France): the Lanice conchilega reef serves as an oasis in the tidal flats
| Type | Article | ||||||||||||
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| Date | 2013-04 | ||||||||||||
| Language | English | ||||||||||||
| Author(s) | de Smet Bart1, Godet Laurent2, Fournier Jerome3, 4, Desroy Nicolas 5, Jaffre Mikael6, Vincx Magda1, Rabaut Marijn1 |
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| Affiliation(s) | 1 : Univ Ghent, Dept Biol, Marine Biol Sect, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. 2 : Univ Nantes, UMR LETG Nantes Geolittomer 6554, CNRS, F-44312 Nantes 3, France. 3 : Museum Natl Hist Nat, UMR BOREA 7208, CNRS, F-75231 Paris 05, France. 4 : USM 404 Museum Natl Hist Nat, Stn Marine Dinard, F-35800 Dinard, France. 5 : IFREMER, Lab Environm & Ressources FBN, CRESCO, F-35800 Dinard, France. 6 : Univ Lille 1, UMR LOG 8187, Stn Marine Wimereux, F-62930 Wimereux, France. |
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| Source | Marine Biology (0025-3162) (Springer), 2013-04 , Vol. 160 , N. 4 , P. 751-761 | ||||||||||||
| DOI | 10.1007/s00227-012-2130-3 | ||||||||||||
| WOS© Times Cited | 12 | ||||||||||||
| Abstract | The tube-building polychaete Lanice conchilega can form dense populations, often called reefs, which promote benthic community change and constitute feeding grounds for secondary consumers. The aim of this study was to quantify the role of the L. conchilega reef of the Bay of the Mont Saint-Michel (BMSM) for feeding waders, by combining macrobenthos data, bird counts and bird diet information. Wader densities in the reef were on average 46.6 times higher than in non-reef areas. According to faecal analyses, waders in the reef mainly selected the accompanying fauna and especially crustaceans. The attractiveness of the reef to feeding birds may be largely explained by the high abundance, richness and biomass of macrobenthic species in the reef compared with the rest of the BMSM. | ||||||||||||
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