Effects of intensive scallop mariculture on macrobenthic assemblages in Sishili Bay, the northern Yellow Sea of China

Abstract To elucidate the effects of scallop mari-culture on the macrobenthic community in a moderate energy system, bimonthly samples from four transects along a distance gradient in Sishili Bay, the northern Yellow Sea of China, were investigated. Differences in macrobenthic community structure along the distance gradient were evaluated using univariate and multivariate analyses. The AZTI’s Marine Biotic Index (AMBI) and multivariate-AMBI analyses indi-cated that the macrobenthic community suffered little disturbance from the scallop culture. Consistently, the results of two-way analysis of similarities demon-strated that macrobenthic communities showed no difference along the distance gradient, but were significantly affected by the sampling months and transects. This conclusion was also confirmed by other univariate and multivariate analyses. The concentra-tion of total organic carbon was 17.27 ± 6.05 mg g-1, which is below the dangerous threshold of 35 mg g-1 toxic to benthic fauna. Combined results revealed that no detectable effects on the macrobenthic community were caused by intensive and long-term scallop culture in this moderate energy system. This is likely due to the influence of local hydrodynamics and it is recom-mended that intensive scallop farming be located in areas with strong tidal or current flows