This volume contains the papers and abstracts of the posters given at the symposium on Long-term Changes in Coastal Benthic Communities organized by the Commission of the European Communities in Brussels, Belgium from 9 till 12 December 1985. The organization of this symposium came to conclude five years of activities in the COST 647 project on Coastal Benthic Ecology, the rationale of which is explained in the foreword by B. F. Keegan. The importance of this volume is that for the first time special attention is given to long-term data series of relevant biological variables collected in different marine benthic habitats. Many of the data presented here are the result of years of careful data collection by some of the leading scientists in the field of benthic ecology. Some of the series, such as the Macoma balthica data from the Wadden Sea or the macrofauna data from Loch Linnhe, to name just those two, are already classics in the marine biological literature. Other data were collected in the framework of a monitoring programme and are now analyzed for the first time in the different perspective of the COST 647 project. Several papers are from related fields where they represent well known case studies; they were chosen in order to see how problems have been tackled elsewhere.

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1. Latitudinal trends in reproduction, recruitment and population characteristics of some rocky littoral molluscs and cirripedes.- 2. Temporal and spatial patterns in the recruitment of Gibbula umbilicalis.- 3. Preliminary observations on Gibbula umbilicalis (Da Costa 1778) on the Portuguese Coast.- 4. Preliminary studies on the reproduction and population dynamics of Monodonta lineata and Gibbula umbilicalis (Mollusca, Gastropoda) on the central coast of Asturias (N. Spain).- 5. Geographical variation in the breeding cycles and recruitment of Patella spp..- 6. Aspects of the ecology of Patella spp. on the Portuguese coast.- 7. Comparative trends and ecological patterns of rocky subtidal communities in the Swedish and Norwegian Skagerrak area.- 8. Long-term trends in algal-dominated rocky subtidal communities on the Swedish west coast - a transitional system?.- 9. Rocky subtidal assemblages on the west coast of Ireland.- 10. Long term changes in the benthic communities of Loch Linnhe and Loch Eil (Scotland).- 11. Long-term studies at a benthic station off the coast of Northumberland.- 12. Changes of the macrozoobenthos at 3 monitoring stations in the western Baltic sea and the Sound.- 13. Temporal changes of community structure and biomass in two subtidal macroinfaunal assemblages in La Coruna Bay, NW Spain.- 14. Demographic equilibrium: the case of an Amphiura filiformis assemblage on the west coast of Ireland.- 15. Modifications des écosystèmes des vasières côtières du Sud-Bretagne.- 16. Variations à long-terme (1977-1985) du peuplement des sables fins de la Pierre Noire (baie de Morlaix, Manche Occidentale): analyse statistique de l'évolution structural.- 17. Suivi pluriannuel du peuplement à Abra alba dans la partie méridionale de la Mer du Nord (Région de Dunkerque-France).- 18. Common patterns in the fluctuations of macrozoobenthic species living at different places on tidal flats in the Wadden Sea.- 19. Long-term changes in intertidal flat macrozoobenthos as an indicator of stress by organic pollution.- 20. Long-term studies of macrozoobenthos in intertidal and shallow subtidal habitats near the island of Norderney (East Frisian coast, Germany).- 21. Recruitment and year-to-year variability in a population of Macoma balthica (L.).- 22. Fluctuations naturelles et évolution artificielle des biocénoses macrozoobenthiques intertidales de trois estuaires des côtes françaises de la Manche.- 23. Long-term variability of meiobenthos: value, synopsis hypothesis generation and predictive modelling.- 24. The predictability of biological populations and communities: an example from the meiobenthos.- 25. Interpreting long-term changes in benthic community structure: a new protocol.- 26. Environmental influences on long-term variability in marine plankton.