Benthic Macroinvertebrate in Rimouski Bay Intertidal Eelgrass Meadow: Vegetated and Bare Sediment Habitat (2021-2022)

In boreal eelgrass meadows, ice scouring during winter creates a heterogeneous landscape and forms several sub-habitats within the ecosystem. In fragmented meadows, we found densely vegetated areas and bare sediment zones (tidal pools or channels) where all eelgrass has been uprooted by ice movement. These two habitats have different ecological conditions, which can influence the benthic community inhabiting them. This dataset includes taxonomic diversity data (abundance and biomass) collected in June 2021, as well as in June and August 2022 (as part of master’s and post-doctoral research projects) in the eelgrass meadow of Rimouski. Samples of infauna and epifauna were collected using a corer, capturing organisms present both in the water column and in the sediment. Only macrofauna organisms were sorted and identified (sieve mesh size: 500 µm). Samples were taken in bare sediment habitats as well as in densely vegetated areas. In 2022, to understand the edge effect on the species composition of the community, samples were also collected in the "edge" habitat, which is the transition between bare sediment and vegetated areas.