Facilitation of Soft‐Bottom Benthic Succession By Tube Builders

Gallagher, Eugene D.; Jumars, Peter A.; Trueblood, Dwight D.

doi:10.2307/1937829

Cited by 200 publications

(121 citation statements)

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“…size-dependent predation or flow-mediated effects often characteristic of adult-larval interactions (e.g. Eckman 1983;Gallagher et al 1983;Oliver and Slattery 1985b). Such adult-adult interactions should be explicitly considered in successional models for the muddy seafloor, in contrast to models of communities (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, succession edge of any dependence of colonization prowithin a recently disturbed patch, i.e. temcesses on small-scale variations in patch size poral changes in the identities and proporor substrate isolation would allow more tions of species (sensu Gallagher et al 1983; critical evaluation of this data base, potenDean and Connell 1987), may depend on tially endbling more realistic modeling of the arrival mode of colonists.…”

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confidence: 99%

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The effects of patch size and substrate isolation on colonization modes and rates in an intertidal sediment

Smith

Brumsickle

1989

Limnology & Oceanography

115

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The dynamics of soft-bottom disturbance mosaics may be strongly influenced by life stages of colonists, disturbance size, and patch isolation. We assessed the effects of postlarval immigration, patch size, and vertical isolation on colonization following small-scale disturbance in a mudflat in Barnstable Harbor, Massachusetts. Defaunated sediment plugs of two sizes (50 and 1,750 cm2 in plan area) and two levels of isolation (flush with the seafloor and elevated 5 cm) were implanted in the flat and sampled after 4-41 d. Postlarval immigration proved a major colonization mode for both treatment sizes. Colonization rates and successional patterns varied markedly between patch sizes, however. Fauna1 abundance and species number increased more rapidly, and species proportions differed, in smaller treatments primarily because the contribution of postlarval immigration varied inversely with patch size. Colonization in elevated plugs bore little resemblance to that in flush treatments, with macrofauna accumulating in raised plugs at markedly lower rates. We conclude that postlarval immigration may be a major mode of colonization at our site and perhaps in soft bottoms generally, following small-scale disturbance, that patch size must be considered in models of benthic colonization and succession, and that interpreting results from colonization studies with raised substrata may be problematic.Soft-bottom macrofaunal communities often are mosaics of small patches recovering from recent disturbance by rays, horseshoe crabs, mound builders, and other agents (e.g. Thistle 198 1;Levin 1984;Botton 1984). To elucidate and model the functioning of such mosaic systems (e.g. Paine and Levin 198 l), one must understand the mechanisms and rates of arrival of new organisms into disturbed patches.Colonists may arrive into a disturbed patch by one of several pathways or "modes": settlement of pelagic larvae from the water column; reproduction within the AcknowledgmentsWe thank H.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of patch size and substrate isolation on colonization modes and rates in an intertidal sediment

Smith

Brumsickle

1989

Limnology & Oceanography

115

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“…Although results from the present study indicate that the proportion of background densities attained in unenriched sediment in this study is higher than previously estimated for the deep sea, the rate of colonization was still considerably slower than in shallow-water studies conducted over a similar interval. For example, Gallagher et al (1983) used flush, hydrodynamically unbiased trays to evaluate shallow-water colonization and found that even without enrichment, colonization densities actually exceeded ambient densities.…”

Section: Acknowledgmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of food patches in maintaining high deep‐sea diversity: Field experiments with hydrodynamically unbiased colonization trays

Snelgrove

Grassle

Petrecca

1992

Limnology & Oceanography

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To test whether deep‐sea macrofaunal diversity is enhanced by specialization on small‐scale food patches, we deployed colonization trays by submersible at 900‐m depth for 23 d. Trays were buried flush with the seafloor to minimize potential hydrodynamic bias. Treatments included prefrozen, natural sediment that was unenriched or enriched with either Thalassiosira sp. or Sargassum sp. Density comparisons and rarefaction analysis indicate that Thalassiosira sp. attracted high densities of several taxa of juvenile opportunists, and Sargassum sp. trays were colonized by fewer individuals of a more diverse fauna. Ambient faunal diversity was higher and densities lower than enrichment treatments, although unenriched trays did not attain ambient densities. Results suggest that juveniles, rather than adults, specialize on specific patch types, thus contributing to high deep‐sea diversity; this bottleneck may be fundamentally different from less diverse, shallow‐water macrofaunal assemblages.

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“…However, Weinberg (1984) showed that another tube-dwelling spionid polychaete, Polydora ligni, does consume G. gemma juveniles and reduces adult survival. On the other hand, tube-dwelling species have been shown experimentally to facilitate the recruitment of other species in soft-bottom communities (Gallagher et al 1983).…”

Section: Species Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Persistence of an introduced mudflat community in South San Francisco Bay, California

Nichols¹,

Thompson²

1985

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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The benthic invertebrate community inhabiting the extensive and sedimentologically homogeneous mudflats of South San Francisco Bay has demonstrated a high degree of constancy in both species composition and relative abundance among species throughout 10 yr of observation. The community, composed predominantly of introduced species with opportunistic lifestyles, is dominated numerically by Gemma gernma, Ampelisca abdita, and Streblospio benedicti. The key to the persistent CO-occurrence of these species on the mudflats seems to lie in the combination of (1) the recurrence of minor disturbances of the mudflat habitat (e.g. sediment depositlon/erosion, inundation by low-salinity water) on time scales comparable to that of life cycles; (2) opportunistic life history strategies (rapid maturity, brooding of young, multiple generations each year, ease of local dispersal of both juveniles and adults) that permit continued colonization of the mudflat surface or rapid recolonization after disturbances. Only 1 of the 3 numerically-dominant species. A. abdita, displays an annual periodicity in abundance. S. benedicti and G. gemma, through broadly flexible reproductive strategies permitted in the mild San Francisco climate, can exhibit strong recruitment at any time between spring and autumn. The most extreme community changes, involving temporary reduction or elimination of normally dominant populations, occurred as a result of anomalous disturbances such as unusual buildup and decay of an algal mat during 1 summer and prolonged periods of unusually high freshwater inflow during 2 successive winters. The introduced opportunists routinely CO-occur at high densities. However, one of these, the tube-dwelling amphipod A. abdita, may control the abundance of the native mollusk Macoma balthica.

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Facilitation of Soft‐Bottom Benthic Succession By Tube Builders

Cited by 200 publications

References 44 publications

The effects of patch size and substrate isolation on colonization modes and rates in an intertidal sediment

The effects of patch size and substrate isolation on colonization modes and rates in an intertidal sediment

The role of food patches in maintaining high deep‐sea diversity: Field experiments with hydrodynamically unbiased colonization trays

Persistence of an introduced mudflat community in South San Francisco Bay, California

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