Diversity and biomass distribution of intertidal fauna in sonmiani bay (Miani Hor), balochistan (pakistan) | ||||
| Egyptian Academic Journal of Biological Sciences, B. Zoology | ||||
| Article 21, Volume 4, Issue 1, December 2012, Page 219-234 PDF (146.92 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/eajbsz.2012.14304 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Authors | ||||
| Muhammad Asif Gondal1; Noor Us Saher2; Naureen Aziz Qureshi3 | ||||
| 1Faculty of Marine Sciences, Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences, Uthal. Distt. Lasbela, Balochistan | ||||
| 2Centre of Excellence in Marine Biology, University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, Pakistan | ||||
| 3Faculty of Science and Technology, Government College University, Faisalabad-Pakistan | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| A year long study of seasonal variations in community structure and biomass of sandy intertidal zone was carried out in SonmianiBay (Miani Hor), Balochistan. The samples were collected, by using a small beach seine and experimentally designed small beam trawl to collect the pelagic, demersal and benthic intertidal organisms. The sampling was carried out from January 2002 to December 2002 during the low tides duration. A total of 84 species were recorded mainly comprised of three major faunal groups e.g. fishes, crustaceans and mollusca. The mollusca were the most diverse and abundant group of animals that formed 39.37% of total faunal assemblage, where as crustaceans and fishes contributed 32.2% and 27.6% ,respectively. Of these, Mugilidae and Sillaginidae were dominating families from fishes. Portunidae, Penaeidae, Diogenidae, Nassariidae and Dentaliidae families also showed their presence obviously as the prominent community groups. The beam trawl collected more number (58.71%) of benthic individuals from the benthic area than beach seine that sampled the pelagic and free swimming fauna (41.28%). A significant seasonal variation (P=0.047) in the biomass distribution indicated the utilization of shallow intertidal zone adjacent to mangroves, as nursery and refuge of many juveniles of resident and visiting fauna | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| diversity; seasonal abundance; biomass distribution; Sonmiani Bay; Intertidal fauna | ||||
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