Macrofaunal community structure of beaches in northern New South Wales, Australia

Abstract

Macrofaunal community composition of ten exposed sandy beaches in northern New South Wales, Australia, appeared to correlate with beach morphodynamic state even though the data represented sampling at only a single time. Better results were obtained by using the Beach State Index (BSI) rather than the dimensionless fall velocity (&OHgr;). Species number and abundance significantly increased as the BSI value increased, whereas biomass was not correlated with BSI. The New South Wales beaches had a higher species number and abundance relative to BSI than did beaches in a published review of beaches around the world.