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Interactions Between the Amphipod Corophium Volutator and Macroalgal Mats on Estuarine Mudflats

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

D. Raffaelli
Affiliation:
Culterty Field Station, University of Aberdeen, Newburgh, Ellon, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, AB41 OAA
J. Limia
Affiliation:
Culterty Field Station, University of Aberdeen, Newburgh, Ellon, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, AB41 OAA
S. Hull
Affiliation:
Forth River Purification Board, Heriot-Watt Research Park, Avenue North, Riccarton, Edinburgh, Scotland, EH14 4AP
S. Pont
Affiliation:
Culterty Field Station, University of Aberdeen, Newburgh, Ellon, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, AB41 OAA

Extract

One of the most obvious effects of eutrophication in sheltered coastal areas and estuaries is enhanced growth of opportunistic macroalgae, which may form extensive mats over intertidal mudflats during the spring and summer. In the Ythan estuary, densities of the amphipod Corophium volutator (Pallas) in the sediment underlying weed mats were significantly lower than those in weed-free sediments, and are dominated by species characteristic of organically enriched, low oxygen environments such as Capitella capitata. Long-term data sets on Corophium abundance in the Ythan suggest that this species has declined dramatically throughout those parts of the estuary affected by weed mats.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1991

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