The Meiobenthos Abundance as Bioindicators of Tangerang Coastal TWaters

Abstract

Sediment at five stations along 54 points on Tangerang coastal waters were investigated to study meiobenthos abundance as bioindicators and the relationship between grain size and TOC. They were analyzed using N/C ratio and Spearman rank correlation. Sediment samples were collected during April and August 2013 and identified to the different taxa level. Nematodes were dominant taxa (90.81%), followed by Polychaeta (3.14%), Copepods (3.07%), Sarcomastigophora (2.46%), and Oligochaeta (0.53%) in all sampling sites. The meiobenthos was primarily represented by Nematodes amount 2029 ind/10 cm2. Meiobenthos diversity, dominancy, and evenness were not significantly different among the five sites. The density of meiobenthos organisms are positively correlated with the grain size and negatively correlated with TOC. The values of N/C ratio >1 indicated that Tangerang coastal waters have highly polluted by organic matter.