Abstract: To investigate the impact of tourism disturbance on the macrobenthic community in intertidal zones of Xisha Islands, this study compared the species number, species similarity index, abundance, biomass, index of relative importance, W-statistic index, and biodiversity indexes between the Quanfu Island, Yinyu Island, and adjacent non-tourist areas. The results showed that: (1) there was obvious natural fluctuation in the macrobenthic community in intertidal zones of Xisha Islands based on the background data from non-tourist areas and tourist areas; (2) the comprehensive difference analysis based on the standard values showed that tourism disturbance brought additional negative effects, and the disturbance effects on species number and Shannon-Wiener diversity index had reached a significant level; (3) the trend of species diversity reduction caused by tourism disturbance was determined by comparing the P-values of all testing indexes (P=0.018). With the accumulation of tourism disturbance effects, the macrobenthic community in intertidal zones of Quanfu Island and Yinyu Island may suffer more significant damage; (4) reasonable tourism management has certain protective effects on endangered species. This study has significance for promoting the development of Xisha's tourism and biodiversity protection.

Key words: tourism disturbance, Xisha Islands, intertidal zones, macrobenthic community, tourism management