Abstract:The macrobenthos is an important part of the ecological system in biological communities, and plays an important role in energy transformation and material circulation. With the decline of marine fishery resources, the intertidal zones in six important islands of Zhejiang are seriously threatened by human activities, causing deep recession of some significant economic macrobenthos living resources. We investigated the taxonomic diversity of the macrobenthos of the intertidal zone, and protected the macrobenthos resources in several important islands of Zhejiang (East China Sea). We used the macrobenthos composition produced by the Checklist of Marine Biota of China Seas, which is based on the historical data of macrobenthos surveys in several important islands of Zhejiang since the 1980s. The species number, taxonomic diversity, index and composition of species similarity index in the order and family levels were calculated. The results showed that species number in the macrobenthos differed in several important islands of Zhejiang. The largest species number occurred in the Nanji Islands:a total of 330 macrobenthos species were recorded, belonging to 213 genera, 124 families, 42 orders, 18 classes and 10 phyla. The lowest species number was recorded in the Taizhou Islands, with a total of 133 macrobenthos species belonging to 105 genera, 73 families, 29 orders, 15 classes and nine phyla. We used the PRIMER 5.2 software to calculate the average taxonomic distinctness index and the variation in taxonomic distinctness index for several important islands of Zhejiang. The Shengsi islandshad the maximum average taxonomic distinctness index (84.76), while the minimum was the Taizhou Islands (70.89). Thus, the genetic relationship of the composition of the macrobenthos species in the Shengsi Islands was more distant than that of the other six islands. The maximum variation in taxonomic distinctness index was calculated for the Dongtou Islands (846.94) and the Shengsi Islands had the minimum (630.25). The islands showed the maximum -index on the premise of a constant -index. Compared with the composition of macrobenthos species similarity index analysis at the order level, the composition of macrobenthos species similarity between the Dongtou Islands and Taizhou Islands was the highest (0.651) and the lowest was between the Yushan Islands and Shengsi Islands (0.480). At the family level, the highest composition of macrobenthos species similarity index was between the Dongtou Islands and Taizhou Islands (0.781) and the lowest was between the Taizhou islands and Yushan Islands. Thus, the macrobenthos species compositions were not significantly different between the Dongtou Islands and Taizhou Islands at the order and family levels. The macrobenthos of the intertidal zone taxonomic diversity in six important islands of Zhejiang was analyzed, which provided references for conservation, development and management within the macrobenthos of the intertidal zoneof the Zhejiang Islands.