EVALUATION OF THE QUANTITATIVE RELATIONSHIP OF BENTHOS AND THEIR HABITATS IN THE RIVER ESTUARIES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

Abstract

We aim to establish a management system for conserving river estuaries environment with a quantitative underpinning, and tried to evaluate the environment of benthos’ habitats using ecological niche models (logistic regression analysis). As the results, ecological niche models for benthos showed the common environmental factors in river estuaries, salinity and sediment are the most important, then the width of habitat changing by tide (intertidal zone width) and height (relative tidal elevation), and tidal flats and loose slope itself is involved for some species. Thus, the factors in the study are applicable to assess the river estuary environment integrally, and to set the quantitative goal on the environmental managements of river estuaries.