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Enhancement of Mercenaria mercenaria densities in seagrass beds: Is pattern fixed during settlement season or altered by subsequent differential survival? 1
Author(s) -
Peterson Charles H.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 197
eISSN - 1939-5590
pISSN - 0024-3590
DOI - 10.4319/lo.1986.31.1.0200
Subject(s) - mercenaria , seagrass , habitat , ecology , population , population density , settlement (finance) , biology , fishery , demography , sociology , world wide web , computer science , payment
The hypothesis that the passive hydrodynamic influence of projecting seagrasses on larval and postlarval settlement is sufficient to explain the higher Mercenaria mercenaria densities inside a seagrass habitat was tested by comparing the between‐habitat ratio of 0‐year‐class recruits after each of two settlement seasons to the between‐habitat ratio of densities of all older age classes. Differential survival after settlement must be invoked to explain at least half of the seagrass enhancement in Mercenaria population density.