Secondary Production of Macrobenthos in Mangrove Area of Tong’an Bay,China

Studies on secondary production lead to a better understanding of the functions of the macrobenthic ecosystem．Based on the macrobenthic data obtained at 6 sampling stations from April 2006 to January 2007,Brey's(1990)empirical formula was applied to calculate the secondary production of macrobenthos in the mangrove area of Tong'an Bay.The results showed that the mean annual secondary production of macrobenthos was 13.24gAFDW.m-2·a-1 The mean secondary production in the mangrove habitat was 12.22gAFDW．m-2·a-1,lower than that in the non-mangrove habitat,which was 15.29gAFDW．m-2·a-1.Two possible reasons existed for this difference.First,mollusk and crustacean,which contribute more to the secondary production,probably benefit from longer inundation period in the non-mangrove habitat.Second,the higher organic matter in the mangrove habitat results in hypoxia in the bottom sediment,which may decrease the secondary production.The annual mean production-to-biomass(P/B)ratio in Tong'an Bay was 1.17,with a ratio of 1.27 in the mangrove habitat and 0.96 in the non-mangrove habitat,which was coincident with the much higher density of Limnodriloides sp.and Corophium sp.in the mangrove habitat than in the non-mangrove habitat.The maximum secondary production and P/B ratio of macrobenthos both appeared at sampling station FL2 in April,2006(namely April-FL2)with values of 31.38gAFDW.m-2·a-1 and 2.20,respectively.The macrobenthic secondary production in Tong'an Bay is lower than those in other intertidal studies except that in Haitan Strait,the reason being the different sediment properties.The P/B ratio in Tong'an Bay was the lowest due to the high proportion of crustaceans in the macrobenthic community．