Benthic community history in the Changjiang (Yangtze River) mega delta: Damming, urbanization, and environmental control

Coastal environment of the Changjiang delta has been influenced by recent anthropogenic activities such as dam constructions, and increased sewage and fertilizer inputs. Previous work examined compositional shift of marine plankton to assess ecological impacts of these activities on marine ecosystems in the Changjiang discharge area. Here we used benthic marine ostracodes collected in the Changjiang Estuary and its adjacent East China Sea in the 1980s and the 2010s, respectively, to investigate temporal changes of the benthic community and the controlling factors of the benthic fauna. Our results revealed more shoreward distribution of some well-known off-shore ostracode species in the 2010s compared to the 1980s, and relatively more important role of environmental processes (e.g. bottom water temperature, bottom water salinity and the eutrophic conditions of surface water) than spatial processes (e.g. the flow of ocean currents) in structuring ostracode compositions. The temporal chang...