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Benthos such as Amphipoda living in coastal sandy sediments are important food organisms for fish, but, factors controlling their distributions remain poorly understood. Here, we aim to solve this question by introducing our new approach encompassing ecology, geophysics and hydraulics / geotechnics. We performed sets of integrated observations / surveys and analyses concerning the in situ intertidal geoenvironments and the benthos distributions at three natural coasts. The results demonstrate that the waterfront suction governs the variety of the habitat environments, involving a range of the degree of saturation, stiffness and void state, and the manifestation of the peak and critical area of densities for the three dominant species are uniquely determined by the magnitudes of such suction which are found to be particular to species throughout the coasts. These findings will effectively contribute to the conservation and management of fishery resources at sandy coasts.