Density and diversity of echinoderms in seagrass bed, Baguala Bay, Maluku, Eastern Indonesia

Abstract

Coastal waters of Suli have an extensive seagrass bed which several of marine biota inhabitant. One of them is echinoderms which associated in the seagrass bed. The objective of the present study was to determine the density and species diversity of echinoderms at Suli coastal waters, Maluku, Indonesia. Sampling was conducted by using transect line from September to December 2014. The results showed that there were 17 species found which belonged to class Asteroidea, class Echinoidea, class Holothuroidea and class Ophiuroidea. The highest density was from class Echinoidea and followed by class Holothuroidea. Species diversity of the echinoderm was low and the number of individual of each species was nearly equal as well as certain species tend to dominant namely Echinometra mathaei and Synapta maculata. Community of echinoderms consisted of three groups which the similarity was higher than 50% at two groups of station whereas other 5 stations had low similarity.