Temporal changes in intertidal macrofauna communities over eight decades: A result of eutrophication and climate change

The comparison of three different macrofauna studies from the 1930s, 1970s and 2009 conducted in the Jade Bay revealed pronounced temporal and functional changes in community structure over eight decades. We focus on species composition, abundance, community structure and spatial extent in the intertidal area of the Jade Bay (Wadden Sea Lower Saxony, southern North Sea). Species inventory increased from 65 taxa in the 1930s to 83 in the 1970s to 114 taxa in 2009 caused by cryptogenic species and immigrations by species of assumed non-native origin. On the mudflats, a strong increase of the oligochaete Tubificoides benedii was observed between the 1930s and 2009, while the abundance of the bivalve Scrobicularia plana and the amphipod Corophium volutator decreased. The mobile amphipod Bathyporeia sarsi and the tube-building polychaete Pygospio elegans, dominant species for sandflats and mixed sediments in the 1930s, had greatly decreased in numbers in the 1970s and were still low in abundance in 2009. Bivalve species standing stocks declined in 2009, compared to the 1930s and 1970s. In the 1970s, an increase in the capitellid polychaete Heteromastus filiformis abundance was noted for the whole intertidal, but declined strongly in 2009. The seagrass bed area decreased by about 50% from the 1930s to the 1970s, but increased threefold since the 1970s. Assuming that cold winters, eutrophication and pollution effects mainly contributed to these changes in community structure between the 1930s and 1970s, climate warming, decreasing nutrient loads and species introductions are more likely for the temporal changes in the macrofauna communities between the 1970s and 2009. In addition, it is suggested that in the Jade Bay a higher sediment accumulation rate outpaced the rate of rising sea level.