Abstract:
To better understand the changes of macrobenthic communities, 4 surveys were carried out in Yangtze Estuary during summer from 2016 to 2019. The results showed that, the number of species, biodiversity, abundance and biomass of macrobenthos had changed significantly in Yangtze Estuary during summer from 2016 to 2019.The number of species dropped from 38 in 2016 to 15 in 2019, abundance decreased from 189.88 ind/m
2 to 81.25 ind/m
2, biomass decreased from 11.60 g/m
2 to 5.33 g/m
2, Shannon-Weaver index decreased from 1.72 to 0.72.
Mediomastus sp. and
Lumbrinereis sp. were the main dominant species, Polychaetes were the dominant group. The correlation analysis shows that: increase of eutrophication and the reduction of primary productivity of phytoplankton were the main reason for the changes of macrobenthos in Yangtze Estuary during summer from 2016 to 2019. And the community structure of macrobenthos was also affected by hypoxia and the change of sediment.