Macrobenthos as bioindicator of ecological status in the Yekshabe creek-estuary, Persian Gulf

The present study was conducted with the aim of identification of macrobenthos in the Yekshabe estuary in Persian Gulf. Sampling of macrobenthos was performed from spring 2015 for one year. It was carried out seasonally by the Van Veen Grab (0.04 m2) at four stations, with three replications. The identified macrobenthos belonged to 51 families, 70 genera, 80 species, 4 classes (including Polychaeta, Malacostraca, Bivalvia, Gastropoda) and 5 Phyla. The average total density of macrobenthos was 760±614 per square meter. The most frequently observed classes of macrobenthos belonged to Polychaeta (67.8%), Malacostraca (18.5%), Bivalvia (11.6%) and Gastropoda (1.2%), respectively. According to the results of the Kruskal–Wallis test, there was no significant difference between the macrobenthos classes among the different sampling stations. The highest values of the Shannon-Wiener index of diversity (3.07) and the Margalef's richness index (4.66) were observed in spring, whereas the highest value of the Pielou's evenness index (0.95) was observed in autumn. The values of all indices at station 4 were the highest as compared to those of the others. The results of ANOVA test showed that the mean values of the indices were significantly different (p<0.05) in different seasons, whereas the mean values were not significantly different at stations.