Benthos Response to Disturbance in Western Lake Erie: Field Experiments

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Abstract
Open space (defaunated sediment) was provided on the floor of Lake Erie on 11 occasions during different seasons over a 26-mo period. The benthic community that developed was sampled over time and compared with the nearby undisturbed bottom community. A consistent succession of functional and adaptive types was observed. Early colonizers — the ostracod Physocypria globula, the naidid oligochaete Vejdovskyella intermedia, and the chironomid, Chironomus plumosus — exceeded their natural bottom abundances by 2–7 × within 40 d, but decreased in abundance later. They are small and mobile, live and feed close to the sediment–water interface, and reproduce often. Late colonizers — Limnodrilus spp., Ilyodrilus templetoni, and pisidiid bivalves — reached natural abundances only after several months if at all. They are large, deep infaunal dwellers that grow slowly and reproduce late in life. An intermediate group — Arcteonais lomondi, Specaria josinae, Pristina acuminata, Dero digitata, Procladius sp., and Coelotanypus sp. — reached their natural abundances early but did not exceed them. This successional sequence of functional and adaptive types appears to be a general response by both shallow freshwater sublittoral and shallow marine subtidal macrofauna to space-providing disturbances despite radical taxonomic dissimilarity.