Four sampling sites, spread over a total distance of approximately 1 km, were chosen along the course of seawater flow from Kalloni Gulf into the saltworks and termed "gulf", "channel", "pond1" and "pond2", respectively. Sampling was repeated as four seasonal samplings in 2004 (in February – "Winter", May – "Spring", September – "Summer" and November – "Autumn"). Samples for the macrobenthic molluscs analyses (three replicates, 0.1 m2 each, tens of m apart) were collected with a Hydrobios Van Veen grab sampler and were subsequently sieved through a 0.5mm mesh size net. The samples were fixed with 4% formaldehyde and stained with Rose Bengal.