Spatio-temporal Distribution of Macrobenthic Communities in Jinhae Bay, Korea

In order to determine the spatio-temporal distribution of macrobenthic faunal communities in Jinhae Bay, quantitative faunal samples were collected seasonally at 23 sites in Jinhae Bay from February, 2011 to November, 2012. Sediment facies were found to be mud except for those at Chilcheon-do near Geoje Island. Mean values of TOC (%) ranged between 1.3 and 3.6%, and these are the highest values recorded excluding special management areas in Korea. Hypoxia occurred every summer in the whole areas of Jinhae Bay except around Geoje Island in the bay mouth. Due to the summer hypoxia, species richness, density and biomass also declined during the summer in Jinhae Bay. Opportunistic species such as Paraprionospio patiens, Sigambra bassi, Nectoneanthes oxypoda and Theora fragilis occurred as the dominant species before and after the hypoxia. However, Capitella capitata appeared as a dominant species only during the winter-spring season every year. From cluster analysis, Jinhae Bay could be divided into two sites groups: one group occupied the normoxic zone and the other one located in the hypoxic zone.