Spatiotemporal changes in community composition of benthic copepods around an eelgrass (<i>Zostera marina</i>) bed off Mategahama Beach, Kamishima Island, Amakusa Islands, Kyusyu

It is widely known that seagrass plants provide shelter to marine organisms. However, their effects on meiofaunal communities in the sediment around their shoots are still unknown. We investigated spatiotemporal changes in the community composition of benthic copepods in an eelgrass (Zostera marina) bed off the beach of Kamishima Island, which belongs to the Amakusa Islands. While no significant direct effect of grass shoots on copepods in the surrounding sediment at the centimeter scale was detected, their community compositions significantly changed between the seasons. Furthermore, proportions of mud in bottom sediment particles, which were larger when the eelgrass shoots were grown, were detected as the most important environmental factor controlling the copepod composition.