Ecological Studies on the Fauna Associated with Economic Seaweeds of South India.2. Distribution in space and time

Quantitative studies are of great value in ecological investigations as the numerical, volumeteric or gravimetric estimation, of the populations provide estimates of productivity and standing crop and enable numbers and weight, of animals in a given habitat to be compared both in time and in space. Colman (1940) was the first to estimate the numerical abundance of the fauna inhabiting intertidal sea weeds. Later, many attempts have been made by various workers (Wieser, 1952, 1959; Chapman, 1955; Glynn, 1965; Hagerman, 1966; Jansson, 1967; Moore, 1971) to study the algal communities in the temperate waters. From the Indian coasts, the only study of similar nature is by Sarma and Ganapati (1972) who studied the numerical distribution of phytal fauna on 13 species of seaweeds from the intertidal regions of Visakhapatnam coast. The spatial and temporal distribution of the macrofauna inhabiting intertidal seaweeds at Mandapam Camp is discussed in this paper.