Aquaculture and Fisheries Commons^™

Importance Of Predation By Crabs And Fishes On Benthic Infauna In Chesapeake Bay, Rw Virstein

VIMS Articles

The significance of large motile predators in controlling the distribution and abundance of the macrobenthic invertebrates within the sediments (the infauna) in a shallow subtidal sand community was tested using manipulative field experiments. The blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) and 2 species of bottom—feeding fishes, spot (Leiostomus xanthurus) and hogchoker (Trinectes maculatus), were either excluded from or confined to small areas using wire mesh cages. Callinectes and Leiostomus effectively reduced infaunal desnities; Trinectes did not. The infauna responded to decreased predation with a large increase in density and diversity within 2 mo. The large population increases were exhibited by opportunistic species, …