The Effects of Sediment Particle Diameter Upon the Meiobenthic Copepod Community of an Intertidal Beach: A Field and a Laboratory Experiment

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The colonization of a range of artificial monometric sediments by meiobenthic Harpacticoida (Crustacea: Copepoda) was studied both in an intertidal estuarine beach and in microcosm culture. The spherical, soda-glass ballotine beads covered the entire range of sediments inhabited by meiobenthic copepods, ranging in diameter from 0.147-0.485 mm. No quantitative differences could be established between the copepod communities of different sediment types, with respect to the numbers of species and individuals in either experiment, although differences in the logarithmic series index of diversity were detectable in the microcosm experiment. More important were the qualitative differences of the communities: different species were found in sediment matrices of different particle diameter. Endopsammic species were recorded in greatest population densities from the coarsest sediments, mesopsammic species from the intermediate and epipsammic species from the finest. In the absence of any other abiotic differences of the microcosm sediments, the non-random distribution of species is attributed directly to changes in the diameter of the interstitial pore. Somatically similar, numerically abundant mesopsammic species tended to be found in sediments of differing particle diameter, indicating the segregation of potential competitor species across the resources. Considerable overlap did occur, so that it is inferred that interspecific interactions appear likely to be important determinants of the community structure.

This publication has 14 references indexed in Scilit: