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International Journal of Marine Science 2014, Vol.4, No.34, 1-9
http://ijms.biopublisher.ca
7
Figure 4 PCA analysis of the macro faunal associates of
Palythoa mutuki
recorded in the four study sites
Figure 5 MDS plot of macro faunal associates of
Palythoa
mutuki
recorded in the four study sites
macrofaunal organisms associated to the patches of
P.
mutuki
with arthropods being the dominant taxonomic
group. In the present study, a higher number of species
of macrofaunal associated organisms was recorded if
compared to a similar study carried out by Perez et al.
(2005) who conducted study on associated
macrobenthic community of
Palythoa ceribaeorum
(Duchassaing and Michelotti, 1860) in littoral zone of
Pernambuco, Brazil and have recorded 28 associated
macrobenthic species. The results of the present study
showed that the entire study area supports similar kind
of associated macrofaunal diversity of
P. mutuki
in
terms of phylum and class but huge difference is
observed in case of species, genera and families.
Sutrapada has the highest macro faunal diversity in
terms of family, genera and species associated with
the zoanthid
P. mutuki
while the site of Veraval
showed least diversity. This kind of phenomena may
be occurring because the rocky intertidal zone at
Sutrapada is flat in nature with an average exposure of
120 meters. The intertidal zone is covered with small
to large shallow tide pools which is suitable habitat for
P. mutuki
and its associated macrobenthic fauna, while
on the other hand the rocky intertidal area of Veraval
is very narrow with an average exposure of 50 meters
which submerges in subtidal zone with steep slope.
The results revealed by the different analyses like
Bray-Curtis similarity, PCA and MDS showed
significative differences in the faunal diversity in the
different study sites which implies that geomorphology
of rocky intertidal zone plays an important role in the
structure of macro faunal community association with
P. mutuki.
3 Materials and Methods
The study was conducted in four different sites of the
coastal area of the Junagadh district: (1) Veraval (20
0
54’ 37" N, 70
0
21’ 04” E), (2) Sutrapada (20
0
49’ 53"
N, 70
0
29’ 17” E) (3) Dhamlej (20
0
46’ 29" N, 70
0
36’
19” E), and (4) Kodinar (20
0
45’ 29" N, 70
0
39’ 39” E)
(Figure 6). The intertidal zone of Veraval is mostly
rocky, while the upper intertidal zone is composed of
sandy shore. The lower intertidal area grades into a
sub tidal zone with a steep slope. The exposure of the
intertidal zone is not uniform and shows a maximum
exposure of 60 to 90 m at different tidal levels. The
rocky intertidal area of Veraval is mostly covered by
small tide pools of varied depth, small boulders, and
crevices. The intertidal areas of Sutrapada and
Dhamlej are flat and rocky in nature with maximum
Figure 6 Location of study areas: (1) Veraval (2) Sutrapada (3)
Dhamlej (4) Kodinar