Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-31T21:13:05.876Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The bottom fauna of a flatfish nursery ground

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

A. D. McIntyre  and
A. Eleftheriou
A. D. McIntyre
Affiliation:
Marine Laboratory, Aberdeen
A. Eleftheriou
Affiliation:
Marine Laboratory, Aberdeen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The macrofauna, defined as infauna retained on a ½ mm sieve, was investigated on a flatfish nursery ground at less than 10 m depth in a Scottish westcoast sea loch during spring and late summer of 1965. The substratum consisted of well-sorted sand of 180–260 μ median diameter, and the infauna had a mean density of 755 individuals and biomass of 1·3 g dry weight/m2 on the beach and 3055 individuals and 3·7 g dry weight in the sublittoral. There was little overall change in the biomass during the period studied, increases in amphipods and some polychaetes being balanced by decreases in other polychaetes, and in Tellina for which no recruitment took place. The distribution of the fauna was studied in detail between high-water mark on the beach and a depth of 10 m below low-water springs. There were 62 species on the beach and 116 on the sublittoral sand. The number increased as the water deepened, the poorest zone being just below low-water mark. Most species showed a distinct zonation. The epifauna of the sand, which was dominated by juvenile stages of plaice and dabs, is briefly described

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , February 1968 , pp. 113 - 142
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1968

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

REFERENCES

Barnard, J. L., 1963. Relationship of benthic Amphipoda to invertebrate communities of inshore sublittoral sand of Southern California. Pacif. Nat., Vol. 3, pp. 439–68.Google Scholar
Clark, R. B. & Haderlie, E. C., 1960. The distribution of Nephtys cirrosa and N. hombergi on the south-western coasts of England and Wales. J. Anim. Biol., Vol. 29, pp. 117–47.Google Scholar
Clark, R. B. & Milne, A., 1955. The sublittoral fauna of two sandy bays on the Isle of Cumbrae, Firth of Clyde. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 34, pp. 161–80.Google Scholar
Colman, J. S. & Segrove, F., 1955. The fauna living in Stoupe Beck Sands, Robin Hood's Bay (Yorkshire, West Riding). J. Anim. Ecol., Vol. 24, pp. 426–444.Google Scholar
Jones, N. S., 1950. Marine bottom communities. Biol. Rev., Vol. 25, pp. 283–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mcintyre, A. D., 1958. The ecology of Scottish inshore fishing grounds. I. The bottom fauna of east coast grounds. Mar. Res., 1958, No. 1, 24 pp.Google Scholar
Macer, C. T., 1967. The food web in Red Warf Bay (North Wales) with particular reference to young plaice (Pleuronectes platessa). Helgoländer wiss. Meeresunters., Bd. 15, pp. 560–73.Google Scholar
Mauchline, J., 1967. The biology of Schistomysis spiritus [Crustacea, Mysidacea]. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 47, pp. 383–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanders, H. L., 1956. Oceanography of Long Island Sound, 1952–1954. X. Biology of marine bottom communities. Bull. Bingham oceanogr. Coll., Vol. 15, pp. 345–414.Google Scholar
Smith, W. & Mcintyre, A. D., 1954. A spring-loaded bottom sampler. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 33, pp. 257–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, A. J., 1953. The fauna of some sandy and muddy shores in the south of the Isle of Man. Proc. Trans. Lpool biol. Soc., Vol. 59, pp. 51–71.Google Scholar
Steele, J. H. & Baird, I. E., 1968. Production ecology of a sandy beach. Limnol. Oceanogr. (In the Press).Google Scholar
Stephen, A. C, 1933. Studies on the Scottish marine fauna: the natural faunistic divisions of the North Sea as shown by the quantitative distribution of the molluscs. Trans. R. Soc. Edinb., Vol. 57, pp. 601–616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorson, G., 1957. Bottom communities (sublittoral or shallow shelf). Treatise on Marine Ecology and Paleoecology (ed. by Hedgpeth, J. W.), Ecology. Vol. 1, pp. 461–534. Washington: Geol. Soc. Am.Google Scholar
Watkin, E. E., 1942. The macrofauna of the intertidal sand of Kames Bay, Millport, Buteshire. Trans. R. Soc. Edinb., Vol. 60, pp. 543–61.Google Scholar
Webb, J. E., 1958. The ecology of Lagos Lagoon. V. Some physical properties of lagoon deposits. Phil. Trans. R. Soc., Vol. 241, pp. 307–419.Google Scholar