Effects of Mangrove Zonation and the Physicochemical Parameters of Soil on the Distribution of Macrobenthic Fauna in Kadolkele Mangrove Forest, a Tropical Mangrove Forest in Sri Lanka

Table 8

Summary of the 6 major epifaunal taxa that contributed to more than 90% of the total species abundance in the 3 mangrove zones in Kadolkele mangrove forest ( = 12 quadrate samples from each zone).

Epifauna species	Rhizophora zone	Avicennia zone	Lumnitzera zone
Cassidula nucleus^*	65.30 ± 13.60^a	0^b	0^b
	(5–158)
Episesarma versicolor^*; (violet vinegar crab)	1.83 ± 0.89^a	4.33 ± 1.50^a	0^b
	(0–10)	(0–20)
Sesarma guttatum^*	1.50 ± 0.73^a	0^a	47.67 ± 4.24^b
	(0–8)		(24–76)
Sesarma smithii^*	0^a	6.92 ± 0.87^b	0^a
		(3–12)
Paratrechina longicornis; (black ant)	2.17 ± 0.10	9.67 ± 8.52	0.92 ± 0.54
	(0–10)	(0–103)	(0–6)
Solenopsis geminata; (red tropical fire ant)	11.08 ± 6.12	0.42 ± 0.34	13.50 ± 5.47
	(0–76)	(0–4)	(0–54)

Note. Values are mean ± SE, range in parenthesis. Different superscript letters in a row denote significant differences ( < 0.05) indicated by Tukey’s pairwise significant difference test. * indicates significantly calculated value detected by ANOVA.