Author(s): Mayank Pandey, AY Desai and KL Mathew

Abstract: Intertidal Rocky reef are valuable sites for investigation of relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem function. The Intertidal zones natural products provide food, not only for humans, but for marine species and migrating birds. The present study was envisaged to know the quantitative abundance of gastropods at Port Okha Reef, Gujarat. Sampling was done from October, 2011 to March, 2012 with 1m² quadrant placed at a transect line in upper, middle and lower littoral region. Ecological attributes like density, frequency, cover and standing crop biomass were estimated to find out the dominant species from the study area.Three species of gastropods were found in major quantity from the entire three littoral zones which are Turbo intercostalis, Turbo coronatus and Astraea semicostata. Results of present investigation reveals that T. coronatus is the most dominant gastropod species in terms of density and biomass at Okha Reef. A clear dominance was observed in the middle littoral zone as compared to the other two littoral zones.

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