• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.84-94
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• 2019

The Seocheon and Yubu Island mudflats in Geum Estuary are important stopover sites for migratory birds as energy supplementation area in the East Asia-Australasian Flyway. Benthic invertebrates in the tidal flats are important food resources for the migratory birds. In other words, benthic invertebrates in the tidal flats play an important ecological role in energy flow. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between benthic invertebrate assemblages and environmental factors in Seocheon and Yubudo tidal flats in the Geum Estuary. As a result of the benthic invertebrate assemblage during the fall migration season, the total species number was 147, density and biomass were $1,772{\pm}1,342individuals/m^2$ and $445.1{\pm}807.6g/m^2$, respectively. Based on the appearance species and the density data, the result of analysis of mutual similarity among sampling sites was divided into two groups. Group A was the Macrophthalmus-Heteromastus community and Group B was the Spio-Urothoe-Mandibulophoxus community. Group B showed higher mean species number, density and biomass than Group A. The BIO-ENV analysis showed that the benthic invertebrate assemblages were most affected by the combination of sand content % and sediment sorting (${\rho}=0.500$). The variables of significant relationship with species number and biomass were sediment sorting (p=0.015) and the pore water DO(Dissolved Oxygen, p=0.003) in sediment, respectively.