Distribution of structure of macrobenthic communities in coastal waters of Jiangmen, Guangdong

Based on the data collected from four-season investigations in Jiangmen coastal waters of the South China Sea in 2016, we examined the ecological characteristics and biodiversity of the macrobenthic community. A total of 56 species were identified, including 21 Mollusks, 18 Annelids, 7 Arthropods, 3 Echinoderms, 2 Nemerteans, 2 Coelenterates, 1 Sipunculan, 1 Chordate and 1 Echiuran. The density and biomass values varied from 10 to 920 ind·m⁻² and from 0.2 to 267.7 g·m⁻², respectively. The spatial distribution of density was generally higher in the waters outside the bay than inside. In the macrobenthos community, Pseudopolydora kempi and Aglaophamus sinersis were most widely distributed, and A. sinersis was the common dominant species that appeared in four seasons. The evaluation results of abundance and biomass comparison curve show that the overall stability of the community in this area is general, while the macrobenthic community in spring and autumn is moderately disturbed with poor community stability. The correlation analysis shows that the tempo-spatial differences of the macrobenthic community are mainly affected by water depth, salinity, temperature, phosphate, sediment type, predation pressure and so on.