Standing Crop of Benthic Infauna in Puget Sound and Off the Coast of Washington

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Abstract
During the period May 28 to August 1, 1967, benthic infauna was collected at 37 stations in Puget Sound and off the coast of Washington. When large but rare species were excluded from the samples, the variability in standing crop (ash-free dry weight) among replicate samples was less than among means from different stations. The mean standing crop for the offshore stations was 1.92 g/m2, which is comparable with the standing crop on the shelf in the Gulf of Alaska, but less than half the mean standing crop for the Puget Sound stations; the difference may be explained in part by differences, previously reported, in primary productivity of the water masses. For the offshore stations there was a weak trend of increasing standing crop with depth. The standing crop at the shallow-water offshore stations, in substrates characterized as fine sand, was dominated by crustaceans and small lamellibranchs, whereas at the deeper stations, in sediments with high percentages of silt and clay, polychaetes and echinoderms were the most important contributors.

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