Abstract
On beaches, the interactions between physical factors, especially sediment grain size, wave action and tidal regime, are primarily responsible for the distribution and structure of organisms and their establishment in certain habitats. Due to the dynamic nature of the environment they live in, the communities of benthic invertebrates undergo changes in the temporal and spatial scales, and quantitative description and observation of these changes is fundamental in the scientific process and a prerequisite for the implementation of integrated management programs. In this sense, this project aims to describe and quantify the associations and communities of macrofauna that inhabit unconsolidated substrate of intertidal region of bay Araçá, located in the central part of the São Sebastião Channel, North Coast of São Paulo, proposing to characterize the biodiversity of the region, discriminate the dominant and characteristics species of each area within the bay and discuss how they relate to environmental factors. Sampling will be conducted every three months, from August 2011 to August 2013, during the low tide. In the bay, will be established 34 sampling stations covering the whole region, from where will be taken samples for analysis of macrofauna and abiotic factors. Species richness (S), abundance (A), Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H) and Pielou evenness index (J) will be considered for the analysis of macrofauna. Similarity matrices will be formed and cluster and ordination analysis will be performed using UPGMA algorithm and multidimensional scaling (MDS), respectively. Relations between invertebrate abundance and environmental parameters will also be investigated.
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