Soft-Bottom Fauna with Emphasis on Nematode Assemblage Structure in a Tropical Lagoon in Zanzibar, Eastern Africa: I. Spatial Variability
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Date
1999
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Publisher
Kluwer Academic
Abstract
Twenty stations were sampled in a reef-protected lagoon on the east coast of Zanzibar from a variety of habitats:
seagrass beds, fine sand, bare medium sand and coarse sand. Total meiofauna densities ranged from 219 to 3422
ind./10 cm2. Stations in the upper lagoon (< 400 m from shore) had relatively higher densities of meiofauna than
those of other habitats, apart from seagrass beds. Of the 12 major taxa recorded, Nematoda normally was the
most abundant taxon, contributing between 13% and 97% of total fauna, followed by Harpacticoida, Polychaeta
and Turbellaria. Nematodes were dominated by epistrate feeders in all habitat-types and altogether 100 nematode
genera were found within the lagoon. Clear nematode assemblage structures were depicted by non-metric multidimensional
scaling ordination in seagrass bed, fine sand and coarse sand habitats. On a larger scale, sediment
characteristics seem to determine the gross assemblage structure. Samples from the same station were more similar
in terms of generic occurrence and population structure than samples from different stations in similar habitats. This
indicates that there are localised factors influencing the nematode populations on a small scale in each habitat-type.
Description
Keywords
Soft-bottom, Macrofauna, Meiofauna, Nematoda, Tropical lagoon, Spatial distribution
Citation
Ndaro, S.G. and Olafsson, E., 1999. Soft-bottom fauna with emphasis on nematode assemblage structure in a tropical intertidal lagoon in Zanzibar, eastern Africa: I. Spatial variability. Hydrobiologia, 405, pp.133-148.