Figure 1.

Location of study sites in the Yellow Sea (a) and layout of transects at Nanpu (b) and Rudong (c). At Nanpu (b), each transect contained nine plots of 250 m × 250 m; adjacent transects constituted a transect pair whose data were combined and analysed together. At Rudong (c), each transect contained nine plots of 500 m × 500 m. Plots were numbered 1–9 based on their relative position to the seawall. In (b) and (c), dark grey areas represent land above the high-tide line; stippled areas represent tidal flats and light areas represent the sea beyond the low-tide line. Tidal flat data are from [35].