Biodiversity, trait composition and ecological functioning: impacts of coastal urbanisation on subtropical mudflats

The world’s coastlines have become heavily modified over the last century, with the adjacent natural habitats declining in biodiversity and health under increasing pressure from urbanisation. In this study we assessed the structure and biological traits of macrofaunal assemblages from 24 south-east Queensland mudflats in order to determine whether ecological functioning (e.g. primary production, nutrient cycling) and the delivery of ecosystem...