2014 Volume 70 Issue 1 Pages 65-78
A Bayesian statistical model was employed to infer the relationship between the number of species of benthic marine animals and the characteristics of sediment in Japanese ports and estuaries. After examining the correlations between sediment characteristics, water content, which was significantly correlated with concentrations of total organic carbon (TOC) and total organic nitrogen (TON), and concentrations of F, Hg, Cd, and As were chosen as explanatory variables. In addition, regions, ports, and estuaries were treated as categorical variables based on the hypothesis that they affected the diversity of benthic marine animals. In the analysis the number of species in four groups of benthic marine animals (molluscs, annelids, arthropods, and other animals) was considered.
The number of species in all groups was negatively correlated with water content, and in sediments with a low water content, the number of species of annelids was significantly lower than in other sediments. These results suggest that water content (or TOC or TON) affects the number of species of benthic marine animals. Furthermore, the number of annelids was negatively correlated with the concentration of F.