The Relationship between Benthic Macrofauna Community Structure and Density of Mangrove Vegetation in Mempawah Mangrove Park, West Kalimantan, Indonesia

This research was conducted in Mempawah Mangrove Park, West Kalimantan on July – August 2018. The research aims to map the benthic macrofauna community structure and its relationship with the structure of mangrove vegetation. The research method was a survey and use purposive sampling data method in observation stations based on different stages of mangrove vegetation. The observation stations consists of Avicennia marina and Rhizophora stylosa as the species of mangroves. Station 1 consists of mangroves in seedling size, station 2 consists of mangroves in pole size, and station 3 consists of mangrove trees. The benthic macrofauna consist of 8 species from 3 different classes, merostomata, malacostraca, and gastropods. The highest abundance value (155 ind/m2), diversity index (1,875) and similarity index (0,668) is in station 2. The relationship between benthic macrofauna abundance and mangrove density has -0,356 as the correlation coefficient which indicates that an increase of benthic macrofauna abundance is in line with the decrease of mangrove density. High density value in research shows that the mangrove is in seedling size, and vice versa a low density value indicates the mangrove trees. The coefficient of determination (0,1272) indicating that the abundance of benthic macrofauna is affected by the mangrove density as 12,72% and 87,28% affected by other factors.