The distribution of the strandline fauna of sandy beaches on the east coast of Tasmania

The strandline fauna of 120 beach sites o n Tasmania’s east coast was surveyed using five pitfall traps in each of three bands overnight . Of the 106 taxa collected, the most widespread and abundant species were sandhoppers and scyphacid isopods, but springtails and geophilomorph centipedes were locally abundant. Crustaceans became less abundant upshore, while non-crustaceans became less abundant downshore; however, one sandhopper became more abundant upshore, and the abundance of another sandhopper and several ants did not differ across the bands. Species richness varied between 7 an d 32 specie s at a beach. Species richness was weakly associated with complexity of the coastline.