Applicazione del concetto di saprobicità ad un ambiente di transizione: la laguna di Cabras (Sardegna Occidentale)

Macrobenthic community was compared at four sites characterized by different degrees of freshwater input, organic enrichment and confinement in the Cabras Lagoon (western Sardinia, Italy). Sites were studied in two dates of summer and two dates of winter. We aimed at testing the hypothesis that benthic communities are distributed according to the recently proposed concept of habitat saprobity in coastal lagoons that unifies the Pearson-Rosenberg (P-R, 1983; sensu organic enrichment) and Guélorget-Perthuisot (G-P, 1978; sensu confinement) models. We found that the biotic and abiotic characterization of Cabras lagoon consists of a succession of spatial zones along two main gradients determined by salinity and saprobity. In the range of variable salinity, saprobity appeared to be the main selection factor.