Habitats Bentônicos na Baía de Todos os Santos

Abstract

Benthos are organisms, animals or plants, that live in direct relationship with the bottom. Benthic organisms have great ecological and economic importance. Several marine and coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, coral reefs, salt marshes and estuaries have an important benthic component, supporting a great biological diversity and providing a lot of services (e.g. refuge, spawning sites, feeding sites, breeding sites and coastline protection). Chemical and physical variables can strongly influence benthic organisms because it controls a great part of the environmental conditions in which a species can live. Furthermore, changes in the composition and or on the abundance of benthic species may indicate human impacts. Here we present the main characteristicsofimportant benthic habitats of the Todos os Santos Bay (TSB), contextualizes some resultsof the TSBProject and discuss impacts on mangroves and coral reefs on different spatial scales. Despite the impacts, many of the benthic habitats in the TSBare still in a good conservation status and fully developing important ecological, economic and social functions. It is strongly suggested that a precise survey to map all benthic habitats in the TSB must be done and also the maintenance and creation of long term ecological monitoring programs.