naa a22 4500 510754643 CHVBK 20180411083118.0 cr unu---uuuuu 180411e20130201xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s13131-013-0280-x doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s13131-013-0280-x Invasive Spartina alterniflora -induced factors affecting epibenthos distribution in coastal salt marsh, China [Elektronische Daten] [Wenjing Xie, Shu Gao] Artificially introduced cordgrass, Spartina alterniflora, rapidly colonized the intertidal flats of the Jiangsu coast, eastern China. The epibenthos on an intertidal flat invaded by S. alterniflora were studied, to identify how local epibenthos species react to an altered environment. Epibenthic samples and surficial sediment samples were collected along a shore-normal profile in 50 quadrats at ten stations across the Spartina salt marsh; and five control quadrats for a station located on the barren sandy-mud flat. The grain size parameters of the surficial sediments show that S. alterniflora altered the grain size gradient along the profile of the intertidal zone by trapping fine-grained sediments. Spartina alterniflora could inhabit lower elevations than indigenous salt marsh vegetation, thus creating larger areas of finer surficial sediments, which was suitable for not only native epibenthic species but also species which do not exist on the barren sandy-mud flat. Correlation analyses show that the epibenthos were sensitive to sediment grain size and type, on the invaded S. alterniflora salt marsh. Further, there was an interspecific relationship affecting the distribution of epibenthos. The results show that epibenthos preferred ecological niches, within the Spartina saltmarsh, even in the same sampling station. The Chinese Society of Oceanography and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2013 benthos ecology nationallicence exotic plant species nationallicence grain size nationallicence tidal-flat sedimentation nationallicence Jiangsu coast nationallicence Xie Wenjing School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, 210093, Nanjing, China aut Gao Shu School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, 210093, Nanjing, China aut Acta Oceanologica Sinica The Chinese Society of Oceanography 32/2(2013-02-01), 81-88 0253-505X 32:2<81 2013 32 13131 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-013-0280-x text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-013-0280-x text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Xie Wenjing School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, 210093, Nanjing, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Gao Shu School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, 210093, Nanjing, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Acta Oceanologica Sinica The Chinese Society of Oceanography 32/2(2013-02-01), 81-88 0253-505X 32:2<81 2013 32 13131 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer