The mangrove in Nigeria basically occur at three zones namely characterized by the low intertidal without any flora having the Diopatra, Other Serpulids, Cossuridae Capitellidae etc, followed by the mid intertidal with either chikok- peat or muddy where the Glycerids, Nephyts and Nereids, are in abundance. The high intertidal with more of sand than mud habour some Glycerids and most other carnivours.
Ys there are zonations and can be interpreted through Species Richness Index..
Benthic zonation, expressed by variations in faunal composition and numerical/functional dominance, is an expected pattern along unvegetated and vegetated habitats from intertidal plains. These plains are subject to varying tidal levels and varying sediment properties. Polychaetes clearly respond to such gradients. Please have a look at the appended file for a subtropical example. You will find plenty of similar findings in the available literature, from the tropics to the polar regions.
I have read the paper and do know of the variations along the intertidal due to biotic and abiotic factors. My question goes deeper and I am trying to explore the development of benthic models where with a certain quotient of detritus, organic matter, silt clay sand etc one should be able to predict the associations of polychaetes that should be found at each intertidal zone per season per ecological zone (polyhaline, mesohaline, oligohaline). The EPT index in freshwater is a good example.
Dear John,
I am not aware of benthic models specifically developed for such conditions, but generalized linear models (GLMs) are widely used nowadays for that. GLM are a flexible family of regression models, which allow other distributions for the response variable and non-constant variance functions to be modeled. Please have a look at:
Guisan A., Zimmermann N.E. (2000) Predictive habitat distribution models in ecology. Ecological Modelling, 135, 147-186.
Regards,
Paulo
Zonations of intertidal organisms exist, no doubt, but their dynamics and coordinates are functions of abiotic and biotic variables.
I agree with the answer of the Paulo. C. Lana, Basically zonation of the Benthic organisms in the intertidal regions due to the tidal frequencies and amplitute. Depaending upon of the inundation during the high tides water reaches upper mark. It simply enhance the growth of the benthic organisms besides sediment constitution also varies due to the tidal impact. The amount of the organic matter deposition depletion occurs from near to the seaward to land ward region. So there are several factors are resposible for the formation of zonation (with plants and animals ) in the interidal region
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