Response of macrobenthic communities to heavy metal pollution in Laoshan Bay, China: A trait-based method

The effects of multiple natural and anthropogenic stressors on the functional trait composition and diversity of marine macrobenthic communities in Laoshan Bay were investigated using biological trait analysis (BTA). Seven traits, including 27 trait modalities and four functional diversity indices (functional richness, functional evenness, functional divergence, and Rao's quadratic entropy), were considered. The results of RLQ (environmental variables (R), species taxa (L), and traits (Q)) and variance partitioning analysis (VPA) showed that the trait compositions and functional diversity of macrobenthic communities were influenced by a combination of stressors, among which heavy metals were the major factors. At the sites with high heavy metal pollution, the prevalent traits were infauna, burrower, and deposit feeder, whereas epifauna, carnivores and crawlers were dominant at the sites of low heavy metal contamination. The impact of natural environmental gradients on macrobenthic communities is also worthy of attention.