Abstract

Beach death assemblages of bivalve mollusks were studied with respect to their species composition in six localities along the eastern coast of Korea (Gangneung, Jumunjin, Daejin, Gallam, Jukbyeon, Hupo and Chooksan). In all, thirty-nine species belonging to 30 genera and 19 families were recorded, and species diversity between the sampling sites varied from 5 to 21. Biogeographical analysis showed that studied fauna has warm-water character with the predominance of subtropical and subtropical-lowboreal species and the presence of tropical-subtropical species (in total, 77 %), and only 23 % of mollusks found are cold-water and temperate species. The most abundant species were Septifer virgatus (Wiegmann, 1837), Mytilus galloprovinciallis Lamarck, 1819, Gomphina melanaegis Romer, 1861, Ruditapes philippinarum (Adams et Reeve, 1850), Mactra chinensis Philippi, 1847 and Spisula sachalinensis (Schrenck, 1862).