Biodiversity and Community Structure of Marine Benthic Organisms in the Rocky Shore of Dongbaekseom, Busan

Species composition, community structure and biodiversity of marine benthic community were studied in the rocky shore of Dongbaekseom, Busan. A total of 82 species of marine algae including 4 Cyanophyta, 11 Chlorophyta, 20 Phaeophyta and 47 Rhodophyta are listed. The dominant algal species were Ulva pertusa, Chondria crassicaulis, Corallina spp. and Melobesioidean algae. Sargassum thunbergii, Chondracanthus intermedia, Gelidium divaricatum and Ralfsia verrucosa were subdominant in cases of different seasons and vertical layers. Chthamalus challengeri, Littorina brevicula and Mytilus edulis were dominant zoobenthic species upper-middle layer of the intertidal zone. The community structure of this area seemed to be controlled by spatial competition with benthic marine algae. The species diversity indices estimated from different sources were quite different. Indices from coverage were 1.87, 3.98 from frequency, 2.26 from the average of total frequency and coverage and 2.15 from importance value. The similarity indices on the present study showed decreasing trends comparing to the previous benthic algal composition researches.