RESPOND OF MEIOBENTHOS COMMUNITIES’ DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS BY ESTUARINE GRADIENTS IN CUNG HAU ESTUARY, MEKONG DELTA.

Abstract

I The meiobenthos community in the Cung Hau estuary, Mekong river, were investigated in dry season 2009. The results showed that they consist of 18 taxa. Their meiobenthos density was recorded from 259±126 to 1375±609 inds.10cm−2. Nematode was the most dominant taxa, represented 76.4% in the total. Other subdominant taxa were copepoda, turbellaria and sarcomastigophora. Meiobenthos density was found high value at inland and marine stations according to diversity indices such as S. H’, d and N1, N2, Ninf while they showed lower at middle estuary stations. The biological diversity indices were higher in the middle part comparing to the remaining stations