Affinities of some common estuarine macroinvertebrates to salinity and sediment type: empirical data from Eastern Cape estuaries, South Africa

Abstract

Fourteen species of subtidal macrobenthos present in thirteen Eastern Cape estuaries, South Africa, were compared with regard to correlations with two important environmental variables (salinity and sediment mud content). Species were divided into five different faunal components based on their affinity with one of the two variables, namely marine species, oligohaline species, estuarine sand species, estuarine mud species, and species whose distribution seemed independent of either...