Spatio-temporal distribution of macrobenthos and benthic ecological health status in the Bohai Sea and the northern Yellow Sea, China

The Bohai Sea (BS) and the northern Yellow Sea (NYS) are threatened by anthropogenic activities and climate change. To accurately assess the benthic ecological quality status in this region, macrobenthos were selected as the research subject in this investigation. The results showed that the macrobenthos community structure had spatio-temporal differences in the BS and the NYS through principal coordinate analysis, especially in Laizhou Bay, and the Yellow River Delta was significantly different from that in the NYS. Specifically, in the BS, the abundance of macrobenthos in autumn was significantly higher than that in summer (p = 0.003). The dominant species composition also had seasonal differences. Overall, the macrobenthic community was slightly disturbed, but the benthic ecological health was “good”. The values of negative cohesion were higher than those of positive cohesion in the macrobenthos community, revealing that there was more competition, ensuring that the community was relatively stable.