Abstract:Chiromantes dehaani is one of the dominant burrowing macro-benthos in salt marsh of Yangtze Estuary. With the burrowing behaviors,they play important roles in many ecosystem processes. Though their distribution is associated with salt marsh vegetation,the effects of different kind of salt marsh vegetations on the distributions of C.dehaani and their burrows are poorly exploited. In the present study,the distributions of C.dehaani and their burrows and the occupancy status of their burrows were investigated in four habitat types,reed bed (dominated by Phragmites australis),patches of P.australis,large area of Zizania aquatica and non-vegetated area with the same altitude at the Yangtze Estuary. There were significant differences among habitats in shoot density,height and dry-biomass (P<0.001). There were significant differences among habitats in abundance (P<0.001) and sex ratio (P=0.001) for C.dehaani estimated by traps. No burrows were available for C.dehaani in non-vegetated area. Among reed bed,patches of reeds and wild rice vegetation,there were significant differences between them in density of burrows (P<0.019) and number of individuals of C.dehaani sharing one burrow (P<0.001). Marginal significant difference in density of C.dehaani estimated by excavating method (P=0.067) was found,while the percent of occupied burrows (P=0.667) and the frequency distribution of different occupancy types (P>0.05) were not significant different. There were significant negative correlations between burrow density and shoot density and dry biomass (P<0.05). A significant correlation (P<0.001) between crab density and burrow density,and a marginal significant correlation (P=0.077) between crab density and shoot height was confirmed. These results indicate that the salt marsh vegetations have influences on distribution of C.dehanni and on their behaviors. Further studies focused on the relationships between salt marsh vegetations and distributions of C.dehaani should be conducted on the temporal variation of distribution pattern of C.dehaani in different salt marsh vegetations with consideration of migration behaviors and breeding cycles of C.dehaani.