M1.7 Subtidal sand beds

M1. Marine shelf biome

M1

Profile summary

Full profile at https://global-ecosystems.org/explore/groups/M1.7

Brief description

These relatively unstable shelf ecosystems in turbulent waters support moderately diverse communities made up largely of consumers, like invertebrate detritivores and filter-feeders, including burrowing polychaetes, crustaceans, echinoderms, and molluscs. Filter feeders are most common in higher energy areas of currents and wave action. Primary producers are limited by substrate instability or light, with seagrass ecosystems (M1.1) occurring where these factors are not limiting to plant establishment and persistence. Low structural habitat complexity means a lack of shelter, and many organisms display predator avoidance traits like burrowing, shells or camouflage (e.g. sole).

Key features

Medium to coarse-grained soft sediment with burrowing invertebrate detrivores and suspension-feeders mostly relying on allochthonous energy..

Overview of distribution

Continental and island shelves.

Map description

These are ecosystem functional groups that are widespread through the global extent of the marine shelf biome. Reliable data on their precise distribution are limited. To represent regional uncertainty, their indicative distributions were mapped in as minor occurrences through the full extent of the marine ‘shelf’ base layer as mapped by Harris et al. (2014b). Occurrences were converted to 30 arc second spatial resolution..

Map code and version: M1.7.web.orig v1.0. DOI

Version history

Profile versions

  • v2.1 (2022-04-06): BA Polidoro; SE Swearer; DA Keith.1
  • v2.01 (NA): NA.
  • v2.0 (2020-05-27): BA Polidoro; SE Swearer; DA Keith.
  • v1.0 (2020-01-20): BA Polidoro; DA Keith.

Available maps

Read more details about the current map versions here.

  • Indicative Map (code: M1.7.IM.orig, version v1.0)
  • Web navigation (code: M1.7.web.orig, version v1.0)

Read more details about older or alternative versions of maps for this functional group.

References

Main references

References used in the different versions of the profiles.

  • Byers JE, Grabowski JH (2014) Soft-sediment communities Marine community ecology and conservation (Eds. MD Bertness, JF Bruno, BR Silliman, JJ Stachowicz), pp227-249. Sinauer, Sunderland
  • Snelgrove PVR (1999) Getting to the bottom of marine biodiversity: sedimentary habitats Bioscience 49: 129-138 DOI:10.2307/1313538

Map references

References used in the different versions of the maps (current and discarded).

  • Harris PT, Macmillan-Lawler M, Rupp J, Baker EK (2014) Geomorphology of the oceans. Marine Geology 352: 4-24. 10.1016/j.margeo.2014.01.011

Footnotes

  1. This is the current version available at official site.↩︎