Engineering effect of Pinna nobilis shells on benthic communities

Summary Within the framework of the possibility of using the Mediterranean pen shell Pinna nobilis in restoration and conservation plans of benthic habitats, an in situ experiment was conducted using empty P. nobilis shells. The latter were transplanted in a bare soft-bottomed area and their associated fauna were followed along 120 days and compared at different temporal points and with the assemblages living in the surrounding soft-sediment area. Compared to soft-sediment communities, an evidently increasing succession of species richness, abundance, and diversity descriptors (Shannon-Wiener H′ and Pielou's evenness J′) was observed with the community inhabiting empty Pinna shells. Among the forty-five (45) species found in association with the transplanted empty shells, seventeen (17) were found constantly in the three temporal points; the other twenty-eight (28) species appeared in the samples collected in the second and/or third sampling time. While motile and sessile species associated to Pinna shells showed an increasing pattern of appearance and abundance along the experiment time, those of soft sediment remained almost constant. The comparison between Pinna shells and soft-sediment associated communities showed that the species richness was slightly different between the two different sample types (49 for soft sediment versus 45 for empty Pinna shells); however the total abundance was found more important with empty Pinna shells. The results obtained herein argue in favor of the important engineering effect of P. nobilis in soft benthic habitats and therefore for the necessity of its conservation.