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Comparative study of the structure of some tropical and temperate marine soft-bottom macrobenthic communities

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Abstract

Macrobenthic sampling of a transect of six stations on the North coast of Central Java in October 1985 revealed three distinct communities which can be regarded as paraliels of those from north temperate waters: (i) An Amphioplus (Lymanella) laevis/Lovenia sp. community parallel with the Amphiura chiajei/Brissopsis lyrifera community. (ii) A Tellinides timorensis community parallel with Tellina spp. communities. (iii) A Laciolina philippinarum community parallel with Macoma spp. communities. A strict comparison of the structure of the first two of these communities with their counterparts in England shows that within-habitat diversity is similar in both regions. Diversity at two shallower subtidal stations is higher than at two deeper stations: this is attributed to the effects of natural, low-level, physical disturbance which maintains the communities in a sub-climax stage. Total abundance and biomass of the macrobenthic fauna was lower at the Javanese stations than in their temperate counterparts.

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Communicated by J. Mauchline, Oban

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Warwick, R.M., Ruswahyuni Comparative study of the structure of some tropical and temperate marine soft-bottom macrobenthic communities. Mar. Biol. 95, 641–649 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00393108

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00393108

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