Benthic mollusks and crustaceans recorded from the Hitotsuse river estuary, Miyazaki, Japan
2010
Miura, T., Miyazaki Univ. (Japan). Faculty of Agriculture | Jitumasa, T.
The faunal composition of benthic mollusks and crustaceans was investigated in the Hitotuse River Estuary, on the East central coast of the Kyusyu Island, Japan. This estuary system is very wide and surrounded by immense rice fields. The area is also known for numerous migrant wetland birds, as they visit here for replenishing of food or staying during winter. The estuary has several subareas with different sediment types as well as variable salinities affected by the freshwater flow. The estuarine benthic animals were sampled 26 times from December 2007 to January 2009. In total, 132 benthic animal species including 40 gastropods, 15 bivalves and 77 crustaceans were recorded. Among them, 14 are known as threatened estuary species according to the renewed red list (RL) published by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment, and 38 after the RL by Miyazaki Prefecture. The necessity of protection of this wetland was emphasized with the rich fauna of benthic invertebrates found in this study.
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