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Influence of Triangular Club-Rush Schoenoplectus triqueter on the Macrobenthic Community of the Hangzhou Bay, China

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Abstract

This study focuses on the macrobenthic community of an unvegetated mudflat and that of a Schoenoplectus triqueter (synonym: Scirpus triqueter) marsh in the Southern Bank of the Hangzhou Bay, China. Samples were collected between April 2010 and January 2011 in order to evaluate possible effects of seasonality on the species composition for each habitat. Twenty-three species were found in each habitat, with higher crustacean and insect richness in the vegetated area, compared to a higher number of polychaete and mollusc species observed in the mudflat area. The highest macrofaunal abundance was recorded in summer whilst the lowest was registered in autumn. Heteromastus filiformis and Laternula marilina were the main contributors to the high abundance in the Hangzhou Bay. The results show higher mean macrobenthic abundances in the S. triqueter marsh (1,707 ind/m2 ± 1,669 SD) compared to that of the mudflat area (1,172 ind/m2 ± 1,115 SD). However, the highest mean biomass was found in the mudflat habitat (0.73 g/m2 ± 0.84 SD as opposed to 0.64 g/m2 ± 0.59 SD from the S. triqueter marsh) indicating the occurrence of larger specimens. Multivariate analyses indicate significant differences in the species composition between both habitats, confirming the importance of habitat structure on macrofaunal assemblages.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support was received from the European Union, Delegation of the European Commission to China and Mongolia in form of the ‘Science and Technology Fellowship Programme China’ (EuropeAid/127024/L/ACT/CN) to H.T.H.L. and through the project funding ‘Research on the Key Technology of Ecological Damage Compensation for typical areas of coastal wetlands in Northern Ningbo (2010C50001)’. The authors thank Jennifer Dent for linguistic support that improved the quality of this paper. Last but not least, we also want to thank all the students for their helping hands during field sampling and for the support received in the laboratory.

We also want to acknowledge two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments that helped to improve an earlier version of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Wadden Sea Station Sylt, Hafenstrasse 43, 25992, List/Sylt, Germany

    Ha Trieu Hung Liu, Ragnhild Asmus & Harald Asmus

  2. Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Wanli University, No. 8 South Qian Hu Road, 315100, Ningbo, People’s Republic of China

    Ha Trieu Hung Liu, Peier Wang, Xiao Xia Tu & Jifang Yang

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  1. Ha Trieu Hung Liu
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Correspondence to Ha Trieu Hung Liu.

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Liu, H.T.H., Wang, P., Tu, X.X. et al. Influence of Triangular Club-Rush Schoenoplectus triqueter on the Macrobenthic Community of the Hangzhou Bay, China. Wetlands 34, 489–499 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-014-0515-4

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