Abstract
The population characteristics of the nematode fauna from five replicate cores taken over four seasons at nine sites within mangroves, at three different estuaries on the south-east coast of Australia, are compared. Using cluster analysis, principal co-ordinate analysis and other statistical techniques, the variation in nematode populations is identified as arising from several sources: temperature changes between the more northerly and southerly estuaries (5%); changes in grain size and organic content of the sediment between sites (22%); changes between sites in the frequency of samples containing certain types of food, particularly associated with pools of water and surface topography (30%); stochastic changes in nematode populations within individual samples, probably caused by small scale spatial and temporal variability in food sources (35%); and seasonal changes at all the sites and estuaries (8%). The implications of this pattern of variation for the biology of the nematodes is discussed.
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