Latitudinal Variation into the Macrofaunal Assemblages Associated to Zostera noltei Seagrass along the Atlantic Coast of Morocco

Table 1

Average values of environmental variables recorded among the study sites from two sampling position habitats.

Site	Merja Zerga lagoon		Sidi Moussa lagoon		Oualidia lagoon		Khnifiss lagoon		Dakhla Bay
Position	Downstream	Upstream	Downstream	Upstream	Downstream	Upstream	Downstream	Upstream	Downstream	Upstream
Latitude (N)	34.87	34.85	32.97	32.99	32.74	32.76	28.07	28.08	23.81	23.66
Water parameters
Temperature (°C)	14.06	16.22	15.58	17.38	15.48	16.31	21.38	17.09	20.74	16.93
pH	8.91	9.43	8.77	8.03	8.22	8.60	8.79	7.81	7.84	8.25
Salinity	16.25	18.86	29.66	24.34	34.22	29.48	36.26	39.75	39.44	27.02
Sediment parameters
Mud fraction (%)	79.81	70.72	68.01	88.43	15.03	66.46	65.30	81.80	8.00	19.70
Sand fraction (%)	20.19	29.28	31.98	11.57	84.96	33.53	34.70	18.20	92.00	80.30
CO2 (%)	35.53 ± 0.31	34.63 ± 2.48	75.4 ± 4.13	46.53 ± 6.55	99.43 ± 0.31	64.46 ± 8.62	50.83 ± 21.77	89.43 ± 13.22	46.03 ± 7.04	17.43 ± 1.17
CaCO3 (%)	80.86 ± 0.68	78.76 ± 5.57	98.13 ± 0.22	92.4 ± 5.93	99.43 ± 0.31	97.63 ± 0.37	85.1 ± 8.93	98.83 ± 0.68	94.16 ± 2.17	39.73 ± 2.71
Seagrass metrics
Shoot density (shoot. m^−2)	2194.33 ± 184.8	3388.6 ± 425.7	2944 ± 907.3	5027.3 ± 1592.4	4929.6 ± 1380.2	2944 ± 1240.6	3462.7 ± 253.1	4620.2 ± 283.9	5425.8 ± 2938.2	6249.8 ± 444.2
Aboveground biomass (g DW m^−2)	67.8 ± 22.7	75.7 ± 6.3	94.3 ± 17.6	146.1 ± 39.2	94.5 ± 43.7	87.1 ± 21.9	81.6 ± 15.4	56.4 ± 7.1	87.5 ± 36.7	77.1 ± 7.3
Belowground biomass (g DW m^−2)	46.8 ± 11.1	43.4 ± 16.7	38.5 ± 16.1	34.3 ± 11.2	22.8 ± 3.3	31.3 ± 2.2	96.9 ± 8.5	86.9 ± 6.76	233.8 ± 53.8	223.9 ± 29.8