Sl. Hull, Intertidal ostracod (Crustacea : Ostracoda) abundance and assemblage structure within and between four shores in north-east England, J MARINE BI, 79(6), 1999, pp. 1045-1052
Citations number
33
Categorie Soggetti
Aquatic Sciences
Journal title
JOURNAL OF THE MARINE BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
Triplicate samples of rockpool algae were collected at each of three tidal
elevations (upper, mid and low) from four shores on the north-east coast of
England. Two moderately exposed (Ravenscar, the exposed shore at Filey Bri
gg), and two moderately sheltered (Selwicks Bay, the sheltered shore at Fil
ey Brigg) shores were sampled during one week of spring tides during June 1
996. A total of 6866 individual ostracods comprising of 26 ostracod species
were recovered from the algal samples. Some species showed significant dif
ferences in abundance with tidal elevation across the four shores, e.g. Hir
schmannia viridis was significantly more abundant in the upper shore pools.
Other species, e.g. Heterocythereis albomaculata, showed no significant di
fference in abundance either with tidal elevation or between shores. Signif
icant differences in abundance occurred between shores at a given tidal hei
ght in some species, e.g. Semicytherura nigrescens was absent from Selwicks
Bay but abundant on the remaining shores. Other species had markedly disju
nct distributions, e.g. Callistocythere badia only occurred in the exposed
upper shore pools at Filey Brigg. Ostracods were significantly less abundan
t in the low shore pools. Cluster analysis showed that low shore samples ha
d a high degree of similarity between the four shores whereas the upper and
mid-shore samples clustered primarily to shore. A two-way ANOSIM indicated
that there was a significant difference in assemblage similarity between t
he four shores and also between the different tidal elevations.