Laboratory of Marine Ecosystem and Biogeochemistry of State Oceanic Administration, Second Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Hangzhou 310012, China

*Corresponding author: shoulu981@sina.com

Abstract

   To understand the distribution and seasonal changes of macrobenthos in Zhoushan sea area, two cruise surveys were carried out in the summer and winter. A total of 219 species were recorded in the sampling sediment during the two seasons. Two-way ANOVA results showed that the differences were not significant among sections in all the community parameters (species number, biomass and density) and species diversity (Shannon-Weiner index and Pielou’s evenness index), but significant between seasons in species number, density and Shannon-Weiner index. This might be influenced by two factors as follows: (1) water currents’ differences between seasons; (2) considerable differences in temperature between seasons.