Abstract: 8 sections in islands of Wenling were investigated in October 2011 and April 2012 to assess impacts of disturbance on intertidal macrobenthos community structure. 96 species are identified, including 40 species of molluscs, 29 of macroalgae, 15 of carapaces, 6 of polychaetes, and 6 of echinoderms. The average biomass and abundance of macrobenthos are 1 794.16±1 148.08 g·m^-2and 679±497 ind·m^-2, respectively. The biomass and abundance in autumn are higher than those in spring. There is one main community structures in islands of Wenling, Tetraclita japonica-Thais clavigera. For all of the sections, T. japonica and T. clavigera are the dominant species and occupy over 80% of the whole biomass and abundance. According to hierarchical clustering analysis, MDS diagrams and ABC curve, macrobenthic community structure has suffered moderate disturbance with the consequence of poor stability in islands of Wenling. Compared to some neighbor islands (e.g. Dongtou, Nanji and Shengsi) in Zhejiang Province, the numbers of species are significantly less in islands of Wenling. Such distributional pattern of the habituating species in islands of Wenling appears to be closely attributed to the surrounding environment as well as to the impacts from anthropogenic activities (e.g. pollution, capturing, etc.), leading to the community structure degradation.

Key words: Zhejiang Wenling, islands, intertidal, macrobenthos, community structure, disturbance