Intertidal community offshore from the Werribee sewage-treatment farm: an opportunistic infaunal assemblage

Abstract

The upper intertidal sediments and infauna between two effluent drains at the Werribee sewage-treatment farm were sampled during the late spring of 1979. Sediments were of fine sands, little mud and varying amounts of shell debris. Species diversity was low, but abundance very high. Densities of individuals at the two drains ranged from about 300 000 to 400 000 individuals per square metre. The fauna was characterized by opportunistic species which included spionid, capitellid and nereid polychaetes and corophiid amphipods.