Composition of Intertidal Rock Pool Sedentary Fauna from Select Beaches of Southern Coast of Maharashtra

Abstract

Tidepools are common features of rocky shores worldwide. They are poorly studied than the adjacent emergent substratum (rocky patch) and very little information is available about patterns and processes of communities in them. Considering this paucity of literature, the present study was conducted from January to March, 2020 to know the community composition and structure of rocky intertidal tidepool sedentary fauna (macrobenthos) from two rocky shores – Ladghar and Pajpandhari in Dapoli Taluk, Ratnagiri District, Maharashtra. The objective of the study was to compare the community composition and structure of sedentary organisms present in the tidepools in different intertidal zones as well as shores. By keeping this objective in the mind, answers to following questions were attempted: 1) How do physico-chemical parameters affect community composition and structure of sedentary organisms in tidepools? To test this, correlation analyses were carried out between the physico-chemical variables and the diversity attributes. 2) What is the distribution pattern of organisms within high tide, mid tide and low tide zones of the intertidal regions. 3) What is the effect of anthropogenic disturbance on the community composition and structure of tidepools. For the second and third questions, tests of community similarity like ANOSIM and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis were done.