Microphytobenthic biomass and species composition in intertidal flats of the Nakdong River estuary, Korea

Intertidal microphytobenthos (MPB) were investigated monthly from August 2006 to March 2008 at four different sites in the sand flats of Nakdong River estuary, Korea. Samples of surface sediment (ca. 1 cm) were collected, and chlorophyll a was extracted as biomass estimation. Species identification and enumeration were carried out by light microscopy, assisted where necessary by scanning electronic microscopy. Biomass varied between 0.47 and 16.58 μg cm−3, abundance changed from 5.25 to 414.75 × 103 cells cm−3, while the Shannon diversity indexes ranged between 0.69 and 2.35 H′. Thirty-nine MPB taxa were identified, primarily composed of epipelic diatoms, among which Amphora and Navicula were the most abundant genera. Based on the biomass, abundance, species composition and their dynamics, MPB assemblages of sampling sites were grouped into three distinct communities corresponding to their sediment composition characteristics. Multivariate correlation analysis revealed that biomass was positively related to mud and very fine sand, negatively related to fine and medium sand, but not significantly related to environmental factors such as pore water nutrients, light intensity and salinity, which fluctuated rapidly during emersion period. Cluster analysis corroborated the division of MPB communities according to site types on seasonal scales, and also showed seasonality between sites by cluster of all summer groups. Principal component analysis identified that variability in species composition was significantly affected by mud, very fine sand, fine sand, light intensity, and sediment temperature. This study suggests that sediment composition plays an important role in the functioning of intertidal MPB communities in estuarine ecosystems.