Temporal variations in the taxonomic relatedness of periphytic ciliatemicrofauna during colonization periods were studied in coastal waters of theYellow Sea, northern China, from May to June 2010. Samples were collected attwo depths of 1 and 3 m, using glass slides as artificial substrates. Thecolonization dynamics of ciliate microfauna on the slides revealed similarpatterns in species composition at both depths. In the immature communities(1–7 days), the taxonomic patterns showed high variability compared to thosein the mature ones (10 days and more). However, taxonomic relatednessparameters at the two depths differed during early stages of colonization(e.g. 1–3 days). Taxonomic diversity (Δ) was subject to high variability(coefficients of variation >10%) in both immature and mature communities,whereas taxonomic distinctness (Δ*), average taxonomic distinctness (Δ+) and variation in taxonomic distinctness (Λ+)showed high stability (coefficients of variation <10%) during thecolonization times of 3–21 days. These findings suggest that 3–21-dayexposure times are sufficient to detect the taxonomic distinctness ofperiphytic ciliate microfauna at water depths of 1–3 m for the purposes ofecological research and monitoring of marine ecosystems.

Re-analysis of data from Salisbury (1974) shows no significant relationship between seed size and habitat conditions, a relationship for which this paper is frequently cited as support. The discrepancy between the results reported here and those found in the original paper is due to Salisbury's ‘evidence’ being a table of congeneric pairs collected specifically because they possessed the target relationship. This paper emphasizes particularly the need for an unbiased sampling of species pairs in comparisons attempting to define ecological relationships. The analysis presented here represents the fourth such instance in which previously assumed robust examples of the relationship between seed size and habitat type are shown not to be so when the appropriate methods are used to account for relatedness among species.