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Life history analysis of five dominant infaunal polychaete species from the continental slope off North Carolina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

James A. Blake
Affiliation:
Science Applications International Corporation, 89 Water Street, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA

Extract

Observations were made on the reproduction and life history of five species of polychaetes collected from the continental slope off North Carolina, USA. Three species were studied at a 2000-m lower slope station off Cape Lookout (Aurospio dibranchiata, Microrbinia linea, and Pholoe anoculata) and the other two at a 600-m upper slope station off Cape Hatteras (Cossura longocirrata and Scalibregma inflatum). Aurospio dibranchiata, a surface feeding spionid, exhibited seasonally in egg diameter and size-frequency data, with the larger sizes occurring in late summer months. Pholoe anoculata, a small carnivorous scale worm, did not exhibit any evidence of seasonality in size-frequency data at the 2000-m station. Sexually mature specimens were absent from this population, but were present at shallower slope depths, indicating year-round recruitment into the lower slope from middle and upper slope populations.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1993

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