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On the Scale of Aggregation of Meio‐benthic Copepods on a Tidal Mudflat
Author(s) -
Fleecer J.W.,
Palmer M. A.,
Moser E.B.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
marine ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.668
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1439-0485
pISSN - 0173-9565
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0485.1990.tb00241.x
Subject(s) - benthic zone , autocorrelation , spatial ecology , oceanography , spatial analysis , meiobenthos , scale (ratio) , sampling (signal processing) , ecology , biology , geology , geography , physics , statistics , mathematics , remote sensing , cartography , detector , optics
. The dispersion pattern of mciobenthic harpacticoid copepods was measured on a mudflat at different tidal conditions. Samples were collected using a 5 times 5 array of contiguous cores (8 mm ID), and analyzed by spatial autocorrelation (MOHAN'S I statistic). Four species were abundant, and all were judged to be patchy by autocorrelation. The apparent scale of patchincss did not differ with tidal stage. Three species were aggregated at very small spatial scales (0.5 to 1cm 2 ), with patches probably distributed at random within a sampling array. The fourth species was also aggregated at the smallest spatial scale (neighboring cores), but may have been regularly spaced at distances longer than 5 cm. This study shows that processes on the order of several cm 2 must dictate the patch dynamics of small metazoans.