title: The impact of coastal urbanization on the structure of phytobenthic communities in southern Brazil.
abstract: The anthropogenic pressures on coastal areas represent important factors affecting local, regional, and even global patterns of distribution and abundance of benthic organisms. This report undertakes a comparative analysis of the community structure of rocky shore intertidal phytobenthos in both pristine like environments (PLE) and urbanized environments (UBE) in southern Brazil, characterizing variations on different spatial scales. Multivariate analysis of variance indicated that the PLE is characterized by a larger number of taxa and an increased occurrence of Rhodophyta species in relation to UBE. In contrast, UBE were dominated by opportunistic algae, such as Cladophora and Ulva spp. Significance tests further indicated higher species richness and Shannon-Wiener diversity on the PLE in relation to UBE. Here we provide data showing the magnitude of seaweed biodiversity loss and discuss direct and indirect consequences of unplanned urbanization on these communities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 88040-900 Florianópolis, Brazil. cintia_ufpr@yahoo.com.br
authors.forename: Cintia D L
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Martins
authors.forename: Noele
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Arantes
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Faveri
authors.forename: Manuela B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Batista
authors.forename: Eurico C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.forename: Paulo R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Pagliosa
authors.forename: Alessandra L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Fonseca
authors.forename: José Marcos C
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Nunes
authors.forename: Fungyi
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chow
authors.forename: Sonia B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.forename: Paulo A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Horta
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D001938:Brazil; D000460:Chlorophyta / Q000502:physiology; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D000459:Phaeophyceae / Q000502:physiology; D000461:Rhodophyta / Q000502:physiology; D012624:Seaweed / Q000502:physiology*; D014507:Urbanization