Marine Sedentary Polychaetes in Hong Kong

by

Ma Chun Ho

Department of Biology and Chemistry

City University of Hong Kong

Acknowledgements

        I would like to give my profound thanks to the project supervisor, Dr Paul K. S. Shin, for his guidance and enduring support in the whole process of the project.   Grateful thanks are also given to a number of persons for their kindly assistance throughout this project.

About the Project

Introduction

        This webpage was created for the final year project, "Webpage Design for Identification of Marine Sedentary Polychaetes in Hong Kong" of Department of Biology and Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong.   There are another projects about webpage design for "Marine Errant Polychaetes in Hong Kong", "Economic Marine Fishes of Hong Kong" and "Marine Invertebrate in Hong Kong".

        This project is an attempt to generate a wider research interest of polychaetes in local waters.   The aims of this webpage design are to introduce the common families of sedentary polychaetes found in Hong Kong and provide a tool for identification.    This project, hopefully, can generate interest in webpage design for other local fauna and flora.

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Materials and Methods

The grab locations in Hong Kong for collecting sedentary polychaetes
Fig.1  The grab locations in Hong Kong for collecting sedentary polychaetes.

        Polychaetes can be found in marine sediments.    In this project, marine sediments were collected from 5 locations (Fig.1)  in Hong kong in August 1999.   The marine sediments were collected from sea bottom by a 0.05 m2 van veen grab (Fig. 2 and 3).   A fishing boat (Fig. 4) was hired for visiting the grab locations and operating the grab.

A open grab
Fig.2  A grab is open before it is put into sea.
A closed grab
Fig. 3  A grab is closed after collecting sediments.

A fishing boat
Fig. 4  A fishing boat was hired for visiting the grab locations and operating the grab.

        The grab samples (Fig. 5) collected were treated immediately on board.   The sediments were washed through a sieve of 1 mm and 0.5 mm respectively (Fig. 6).   The fauna and sediment residues retained (Fig. 7) were fixed in 4 % formalin in seawater.   All the sieved samples were brought back to the laboratory.

The sediments collected from the grab locations
(a) (b) (c) (d) (e)
Fig. 5  The sediments collected from sea bottom of grab locations: (a) Victoria Habour, (b) Tathong Channel, (c) off Waglan Island, (d) Tolo Channel and (e) Mirs Bay.

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Sediments were washed through a sieve

Fauna and sediment residues retained

Fig. 6   Sediments were washed through a sieve.

Fig. 7   After sediments were washed through a sieve, the fauna and sediment residues were retained.

        In the laboratory, the sieved samples were washed in freshwater to remove formalin.    The faunal samples were sorted under a stereo microscope and the animals were preserved in 70% ethanol.   The polychaetes in the sorted samples were identified at least to the family level.

        The webpage design was on the basis of the sedentary polychaetes collected from the grab locations.    The specimens of sedentary polychaetes were photographed under a stereo microscope using a CCD camera with the aid of the computer software called Metamorph.

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