Macrofaunal colonisation of stranded Durvillaea antarctica on a southern New Zealand exposed sandy beach

Figures & data

Figure 1  Location of Victory Beach and Allans Beach on the Otago Peninsula, New Zealand.

Figure 2  Study design showing the four sampling areas (A–D) along Victory Beach. Each area was separated by at least 100 m. Within each area, six mesh bags were placed at 4-m intervals along a 20-m transect. On sampling days 1, 3, 6, 10, 20 and 30, a bag was randomly selected from each sampling area and removed from the study site.

Table 1  Total abundance (number and % of total community) and biomass (dry weight (g) and % of total community) of individual taxonomic groups associated with samples of Durvillaea antarctica on Victory Beach, Otago Peninsula

	Total no.		% of community		Total biomass (g)		% of community
Taxa	Autumn	Winter	Autumn	Winter	Autumn	Winter	Autumn	Winter
Amphipoda
Bellorchestia quoyana	11699	9138	73.62	85.04	38.9	16.7	87.30	96.81
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae	1961	1134	12.34	10.55	1.13	0.4	2.54	2.32
Blediotrogus guttiger
Macralymma punctiventre
Other Coleoptera
Tenebrionidae	181	2	1.14	0.02	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Chaerodes trachyscelides
C. trachyscelides larvae	29	4	0.18	0.04	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Curculionidae	4	6	0.03	0.06	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Aphela algarum
Coccinellidae	1	–	0.01	–	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Scarabaeidae	1	–	0.01	–	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Total	216	12	1.36	0.11	2.61	0.02	5.86	0.12
Diptera
Mycetophilidae	359	337	2.26	3.14	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Pupa	146	54	0.92	0.5	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Coelopidae	9	34	0.06	0.32	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Sphaeroceridae pupae	342	30	2.15	0.28	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Muscidae	1	–	0.01	–	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Nematocera	–	1	–	0.01	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Therevidae	–	1	–	0.01	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Unknown pupa sp.	22	–	0.14	–	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Total	879	457	5.53	4.26	1.8	0.17	4.04	0.99
Other
Isopoda	13	2	0.08	0.02	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Decapoda	5	1	0.03	0.01	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Diplopoda	–	1	–	0.01	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Hymenoptera	–	1	–	0.01	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Formicidae	–	1	–	0.01	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Heteroptera	1	–	0.01	–	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Arachnida	1	–	0.01	–	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Total	20	5	0.13	0.06	0.12	0.007	0.27	0.04
Autumn and winter numbers are the pooled samples over all sampling dates. n/a, not applicable (too low to quantify); –, absent from samples.

Figure 3  Mean number (±SE) of A, Amphipoda, B, Staphylinidae, C, other Coleoptera and D, Diptera (per kelp sample) over a period of 30 days during autumn (day 1–20, n=4; day 30, n=3) and winter (day 1–10, n=4; day 20, n=3; day 30, n=2) 2008, on Victory Beach. Significant differences between sampling days are denoted by dissimilar letters

Figure 4  Mean biomass (g) (±SE) of A, Amphipoda, B, Staphylinidae, C, other Coleoptera and D, Diptera (per kelp sample) over a period of 30 days during autumn (day 1–20, n=4; day 30, n=3) and winter (day 1–10, n=4; day 20, n=3; day 30, n=2) 2008, on Victory Beach. Significant differences between sampling days are denoted by dissimilar letters

Figure 5  Percentage (%) (±SE) of A, initial dry weight; B, initial moisture; and C, carbon content over a period of 30 days in autumn (day 1–20: n=4, day 30: n=3) and winter (day 1–10: n=4, day 20: n=3, day 30: n=2) on Victory Beach, on the Otago Peninsula.

Figure 6  Relationship between the initial dry weight (%) of Durvillaea antarctica and the log macrofaunal biomass associated with samples on Victory Beach, during autumn and winter 2008.

Figure 7  The relationship between the ratio of carbon to nitrogen and the log macrofaunal abundance associated with samples of Durvillaea antarctica on Victory Beach, over a 30-day period in autumn and winter 2008.