Secondary productivity of macrobenthos in intertidal flat of Luoyuan Bay, Fujian Province of East China

Based on the survey data of macrobenthos in the intertidal flat of Luoyuan Bay in 2009, and by using Brey' s empirical formula, this paper estimated the macrobenthos secondary productivity, production/biomass (P/B) ratio, and their spatiotemporal distribution patterns in the flat. The annual secondary productivity and P/B ratio of the macrobenthos in the flat were estimated as 18.58 g AFDM (ash free dry mass) x m(-2) x a(-1) and 0.97, respectively, and the secondary productivity in the Spartina alterniflora marshes of the upper intertidal flat (8.97g AFDM x m(-2) a(-1)) was much lower than that in the bare flat of the lower intertidal zone (28.19 g AFDM x m(-2) x a(-1)). Since the introduction of S. alterniflora by the end of the 1980s, the secondary productivity of the macrobenthos in the flat had increased about 4 folds. Musculus senhousei, which inhabited in the lower bare flat, contributed 66.4% of the total macrobenthos secondary productivity in the entire intertidal flat. If the contribution from M. sen