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A Survey of the Benthos of the Tay Estuary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

N. Khayrallah  and
A. M. Jones
N. Khayrallah
Affiliation:
Tay Estuary Research Centre, Newport on Tay
A. M. Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Dundee
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Synopsis

The distributions of benthic macroflora and macrofauna in the Tay estuary were investigated qualitatively and quantitatively during the spring and summer months of 1973 and the results compared with the study by Alexander et al. (1935). Sublittoral areas were sampled using SCUBA diving techniques. The overall distribution of flora and fauna is determined primarily by salinity variation and substrate texture, a large part of the sublittoral area being found to have little or no infaunal component due to the instability of the coarse sediments found widely in this region. The most prominent sublittoral populations are those of Mytilus edulis found in the middle and outer estuary. The northern shore of the inner estuary is composed entirely of mud and sand flats bounded by large areas of Phragmites communis. The predominant organisms in this area are euryhaline annelid and crustacean species. The southern shore is comparatively narrow and is composed of a variety of substrates from bedrock to mud. The flora and fauna of this shore varies with substrate type but it is here that macroalgal species are found to penetrate the inner estuary. Some euryhaline organisms penetrate the estuary as far as Newburgh, the point where freshwater and estuarine populations overlap. No evidence of gross pollution was detectable in this study except in the immediate vicinity of sewage outfalls.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Section B: Biological Sciences , Volume 75 , Issue 1-2: Physical and Biological Aspects of the Tay Estuary , 1975 , pp. 113 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1975

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