Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T02:40:47.868Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Macrofauna production in an estuarine mud-flat

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

R. M. Warwick  and
R. Price
R. M. Warwick
Affiliation:
NERC Institute for Marine Environmental Research, Citadel Road, Plymouth, PL1 3DH
R. Price
Affiliation:
NERC Institute for Marine Environmental Research, Citadel Road, Plymouth, PL1 3DH
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The importance of the extensive intertidal mud-flats to the energy budget of estuaries has frequently been stressed, but seldom quantified. Smidt (1951) has discussed the production of both macro- and meiofauna from the Danish Waddens in general terms but, because of the wide coverage, his information is not detailed enough to quantify annual production in terms of g/m2. The present study was designed to compare the productive importance of macrofauna and meiofauna in detail at a single site. This paper deals only with the first phase of this study, the macrofauna, which are retained on a 0.5 mm sieve for the major part of their productive life.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , March 1975 , pp. 1 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1975

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, K. R., 1951. The Horokiwi stream. A study of a trout population, Fisheries Bulletin. New Zealand Marine Department, 10, 1–238.Google Scholar
Allen, K. R., 1971. Relation between production and biomass. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 28, 1573–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bass, N. R. & Brafield, A. E., 1972. The life-cycle of the polychaete Nereis virens. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 52, 701–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brafield, A. E. & Chapman, G., 1967. Gametogenesis and breeding in a natural population of Nereis virens. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 47, 619–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchanan, J. B. & Warwick, R. M., 1974. An estimate of benthic macrofaunal production in the offshore mud of the Northumberland coast. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 54, 197–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burke, M. V. & Mann, K. H., 1974. Productivity and production: biomass ratios of bivalve and gastropod populations in an eastern Canadian estuary. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 31, 167–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caddy, J. F., 1967. Maturation of gametes and spawning in Macoma balthica (L.). Canadian Journal of Zoology, 45, 955–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cassie, R. M., 1954. Some uses of probability paper in the analysis of size frequency distributions. Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 5, 513–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, R. B. & Olive, P. J. W., 1973. Recent advances in polychaete endocrinology and reproductive biology. Oceanography and Marine Biology, an Annual Review, 11, 175–222.Google Scholar
Clay, E., 1967 a. Literature survey of the common fauna of estuaries. 12. Mya arenaria L. Mya truncata L. I.C.I. Paints Division, Marine Research Station, Brixham, Devon, 1–25.Google Scholar
Clay, E., 1967 b. Literature survey of the common fauna of estuaries. 13. Cardium edule (L.). I.C.I. Paints Division, Marine Research Station, Brixham, Devon, 1–28.Google Scholar
Clay, E., 1967 c. Literature survey of the common fauna of estuaries. 6. Nephthys hombergi Lamarck. I.C.I. Paints Division, Marine Research Station, Brixham, Devon, 1–17.Google Scholar
Crisp, D. J. (Ed.), 1964. The effects of the severe winter of 1962–63 on marine life in Britain. Journal of Animal Ecology, 33, 165–210.Google Scholar
Crisp, D. J., 1971. Energy flow measurements. In: Methods for the study of marine benthos, I.B.P. Handbook, 16, eds Holme, N. A. and Mclntyre, A. D., 334 pp. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gibbs, P. E., 1969. A quantitative study of the polychaete fauna of certain fine deposits in Plymouth Sound. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 49, 311–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, R. H., 1973. Growth and mortality in an Arctic intertidal population of Macoma balthica (Pelecypoda, Tellinidae). Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 30, 1345–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hancock, D. A., 1965. Graphical estimation of growth parameters. Journal du Conseil 29, 340–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hancock, D. A., 1967. Growth and mesh selection in the edible cockle (Cardium edule L.). Journal of Applied Ecology, 4, 137–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hancock, D. A. & Urquhart, A. E., 1964. Mortalities of edible cockles (Cardium edule L.) during the severe winter of 1962–63. Journal of Animal Ecology, 33, 176–8.Google Scholar
Hancock, D. A. & Urquhart, A. E., 1965. The determination of natural mortality and its causes in an exploited population of cockles (Cardium edule L.). Fishery Investigations. Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Ser. 2, 24(2), 1–40.Google Scholar
Harding, J. P., 1949. The use of probability paper for the graphical analysis of polymodal frequency distributions. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 28, 141–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holme, N. A., 1949. The fauna of sand and mud banks near the mouth of the Exe estuary. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 28, 189–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, R. N., 1970 a. An energy budget for a tidal-fiat population of the bivalve Scrobicularia plana (da Costa). Journal of Animal Ecology, 39, 357–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, R. N., 1970 b. Population dynamics of the bivalve Scrobicularia plana (da Costa) on an intertidal mud flat in North Wales. Journal of Animal Ecology, 39, 333–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, B. W., 1960. On the biology of the clam Mya arenaria. Report of the Challenger Society for the Promotion of the Study of Oceanography, 3, No. 1223.Google Scholar
Kirkegaard, J. B., 1970. Age determination of Nephtys (Polychaeta, Nephtyidae). Ophelia, 7, 277–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lammens, J. J., 1967. Growth and reproduction in a tidal flat population of Macoma balthica (L.). Netherlands Journal of Sea Research, 3, 315–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindeman, R. L., 1941. Seasonal food-cycle dynamics in a senescent lake. American Midland Naturalist, 26, 636–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marine Biological Association, 1957. Plymouth Marine Fauna, 3rd ed. xliii, 459 pp. Plymouth.Google Scholar
Munch-Petersen, S., 1973. An investigation of a population of the soft clam (Mya arenaria L.) in a Danish estuary. Meddelelser fra Danmarks Fiskeri-og Havundersogelser, 7 (3), 47–73.Google Scholar
Newcombe, C. L., 1932. An ecological study of the soft-shelled clam, Mya arenaria. Report. Biological Board of Canada, 1931, 38–9 pp.Google Scholar
Newcombe, C. L., 1935. Growth of Mya arenaria L. in the Bay of Fundy region. Canadian Journal of Research, 13, 97–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, C. G. J., 1918. The sea-bottom and its production of fish food. Report of the Danish Biological Station to the Board of Agriculture, 25, 1–62.Google Scholar
Pfitzenmeyer, H. T., 1962. Periods of spawning and setting of the soft shelled clam, Mya arenaria at Solomons Maryland. Chesapeake Science, 3, 114–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ropes, J. W. & Stickney, A. P., 1965. Reproductive cycle of Mya arenaria in New England. Biological Bulletin. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass., 128, 315–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanders, H. L., 1956. The biology of marine bottom communities. Bulletin of the Bingham Oceanographic Collection, Yale University, 15, 344–414.Google Scholar
Sanders, H. L., Goudsmit, E. M., Mills, E. L. & Hampson, G. E., 1962. A study of the intertidal fauna of Barnstable Harbor, Massachusetts. Limnology and Oceanography, 7, 63–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slobodkin, L. B., 1964. Growth and regulation of animal populations. 184 pp. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Smidt, E. L. B., 1951. Animal production in the Danish Waddensea. Meddelelser fra Danmarks Fiskeri-og Havundersogelser, 11, 1–151.Google Scholar
Spooner, G. M. & Moore, H. B., 1940. The ecology of the Tamar estuary. 6. An account of the macrofauna of the intertidal muds. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 24, 283–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephen, A. C., 1931. Notes on the biology of certain Jamellibranchs on the Scottish coast, Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 17, 277–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar