Disturbance of benthic infauna by sediment-reworking activities of the lugworm Arenicola marina
In: Netherlands Journal of Sea Research. Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ): Groningen; Den Burg. ISSN 0077-7579; e-ISSN 1873-1406, more Also appears in:Heip, C.H.R.; Nienhuis, P.H.; Pollen-Lindeboom, P.R. (Ed.) (1992). Proceedings of the 26th European Marine Biology Symposium: Biological effects of disturbances on estuarine and coastal marine environments, 17-21 September 1991, Yerseke, The Netherlands. European Marine Biology Symposia, 26. Netherlands Journal of Sea Research, 30. 299 pp., more |  |
| Abstract | The influence of the lugworm Arenicola marina on the abundance of other benthic species was studied in the westernmost part of the Wadden Sea. Small squares (1 m²) within depopulated 144-m² plots were recolonized with various (naturally-occurring) lugworm densities (0-10-20-40-80 and 0-25-50-75-100 per m²). These plots were sampled during the summer. Lugworms were found to have a strongly negative effect on the densities of C. volutator. At 0-density lugworms, the numbers of C. volutator were high. These were halved at 17 lugworms per m² (i.e. the mean density on the tidal flats of the Dutch Wadden Sea), and were further reduced at higher lugworm densities (e.g. 20% remained at 40 lugworms per m²). Laboratory observations of Corophium behaviour in the presence of Arenicola suggest that sediment-reworking lugworms stimulate Corophium to emigrate. Effects of lugworms on other benthic species were also studied in the same way. Lugworms were found to have strongly negative effects on the juvenile densities of various worm and bivalve species (Nereis diversicolor, Nephtys hombergii, Heteromastus filiformis, Scoloplos armiger, Pygospio elegans, Capitella capitata and Mya arenaria, Cerastoderma edule, Macoma balthica, Angulus tenuis, respectively). |
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