Microhabitat use by two rocky shore gastropods in an intertidal sandy substrate with rocky fragments.

Sandy beaches in some areas of the São Sebastião Channel in southeastern Brazil have unremittingly undergone a variety of impacts, including the deposition of rock fragments in the intertidal region. Consequently, these environments support a rich fauna comprising both sandy beach and rocky shore organisms. Two rocky shore gastropods, Tegula viridula and Morula nodulosa, are particularly abundant in such environments. An evaluation of the use of microhabitats by these two species revealed that they occupy the available microhabitats in different proportions and the presence of one species is associated with the absence of the other. Morula nodulosa is randomly dispersed, occupying mostly areas with rock fragments covered with sediment and branching brown algae. Tegula viridula shows a clumped dispersion associated with the patchiness of the microhabitats used: the presence of encrusting green algae and absence of sediment and branching brown algae covering the rocks. These findings suggest T. viridula has a lower tolerance than M. nodulosa to sand inundation of the rocky fragments, a stochastic event common to the environment in question.