The Resting Eggs of Marine Cladocerans in the Intertidal Sea-bottom Sediments of Gomso Bay, Korea: Distribution and Evidence of Egg Banks

We investigated the distribution of the marine cladoceran resting eggs in the intertidal sediments of Gomso Bay, Korea and compared the data with those in the subtidal sediments. The abundance of the eggs in the top 6cm of the sediments was higher than that in the other depths. The abundances of the eggs in seaward intertidal sediments below mean sea level (MSL) were higher than those in the sediments over MSL, but were not significantly different from those in the subtidal sediments. The distribution of the resting eggs of cladocerans in the intertidal sediments was affected by the grain-size and moisture content of sediments. The results of the present study suggest that the intertidal sediments as well as the subtidal sediments are a potential egg bank which plays important roles in population dynamics of zooplankton in coastal waters, in particular, recruitment of eggs into plankton.