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The Role Of Colonization In Establishing Patterns Of Community Composition And Diversity In Shallow-Water Sedimentary Communities, Paul V. R. Snelgrove, J. Frederick Grassle, Judith P. Grassle, Rosemarie F. Petrecca, Karen I. Stocks

Journal of Marine Research

To determine whether pattern and diversity in benthic sedimentary communities are set primarily at colonization or by post-settlement biological interactions, we collected faunal cores and conducted reciprocal sediment transplant experiments at a sandy and a muddy site at 12 m depth, ~3 km apart off New Jersey. Multivariate analyses of cores collected at these sites in September 1994 indicated differences in the taxa determining local pattern, with the bivalve Spisula solidissima and the polychaete Polygordius sp. being dominant at the sandy site, and oligochaetes, several polychaete species and the bivalve Nucula annulata dominant at the muddy site. Individual cores from …