Community structure of macrobenthos in coastal water off Rushan, southern Shandong Peninsula, and the relationships with environmental factors

To understand the present actuality of the marine ecosystem in the southern coastal water region of the Shandong Peninsula and the impact of the global change and the human activities to the marine ecosystem of the region, the macrobenthic community structure was researched based on data from 26 sampling stations carried out on four seasonal cruises from December 2006 to November 2007. The data was analyzed using PRIMER 6.0 and SPSS 15.0 software packages. The results showed that 236 macrobenthic species in total were collected from the research region by the field works. Most of the species belong to Polychaeta （76 species）, Mollusca （75） and Crustacea （60）. Of which, 33 species were common species by the four cruises. The dominant species were different among the four seasons, however, the polychaete species Nephtys oligobranchia and Sternaspis scutata were always dominant in the four seasons. The abundances and biomasses of the macrobenthos from the research region were variable in the four seasons. The results of CLUSTER and MDS analysis showed that the similarities of macrobenthic structures among the stations were low, most of the similarities were at about 40% of similarity values, only that of two stations were up to 60%. In accordance with the similarity values of the macrobenthic structures, the 26 stations were clustered as six groups at arbitrary similarity level of 30%. The ABC curve indicated that the marcofauna communities in the research region had not been disturbed distinctly. The results of BIOENV and BVSTEP （Spearman） analysis implied that the concentrations of organic matter in bottom water and heavy metal copper in sediment, water depth and temperature of bottom were the most significant environmental factors to affect the macrobentic community.

The relationship between soft-bottom macrobenthic communities and environmental variables off Ningjin,eastern Shandong Peninsula

Macrobenthic infauna and associated environmental factors influencing the benthic community in the eastern coastal region of Shandong Peninsula were analyzed in four seasonal surveys from January 2007 to October 2007 （30 stations in winter,20 stations in other three seasons）,in order to understand the community structure and the factors unfluencing the benthic distribution.PRIMER 6.0 and SPSS 15.0 software packages were adopted to analyze the environmental and macrobenthic data.The results show that there were 260 macrobenthic species in total collected from the research region.The composition of species is： Polychaeta （94 species）,Crustacea （75）,Mollusca （56） and Echinoderm （12）,among which,only 23 species were common species in the cruises of every season.The dominant species varied from season to season;however,the polychaete species Paralacydonia paradoxa Fauvel and Echinoderm species Amphioplus japonicus （Matsumoto） were always present year-round.The abundance and biomass of the macrobenthos in the research region were variable from season to season.The results of CLUSTER and MDS analysis show that the similarities of macrobenthic structures between the stations were low;most of the similarities were at about 30% of similarity value,only two stations were up to 70%.In accordance with the similarity values of the macrobenthic structures,we divided the 20 stations into five groups by arbitrary similarity level of 30%.The ABC curve indicates that the marcofauna communities in the research region had not been disturbed massively,except two stations,SB1 and SB3.Ecologically,benthos were controlled by a combination of factors such as salinity,phytoplankton,zooplankton,SiO 3Si and temperature,and no single factor could be considered as an ecological master factor.