Free-living plathelminthes in sheep-grazed and ungrazed supralittoral salt marshes of the North Sea: Abundance,biomass, and their significance in food chains |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Great Lakes Center, SUNY Buffalo State, 1300 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14222, USA;2. CSRA, 1359 W. Elmdale Avenue Suite 2, Chicago, IL 60660, USA;3. United States Environmental Protection Agency, Great Lakes National Program Office, Chicago, IL, USA;4. Illinois–Indiana Sea Grant and Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, 195 Marsteller Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA;5. Natural Resources Research Institute, University of Minnesota-Duluth, 5013 Miller Trunk Highway, Duluth, MN 55811, USA;1. National Center for Mariculture, Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research, P.O. Box 1212, Eilat 88112, Israel;2. Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Eilat, Israel;3. Agricultural Research Organization, Fish and Aquaculture Research Station Dor, M.P. Hof HaCarmel, 3082000, Israel;4. Agricultural Research Organization, P.O. Box 15159, Rishon LeZion 7528809, Israel;1. Department of Geography and Geology, School of Biological, Environmental, and Earth Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi, 730 E. Beach Blvd., Long Beach, MS 39560, United States of America;2. Gulf Coast Geospatial Center, University of Southern Mississippi, 730 E. Beach Blvd., Long Beach, MS 39560, United States of America;3. Division of Coastal Sciences, School of Ocean Science and Engineering, 703 E. Beach Dr., University of Southern Mississippi, Ocean Springs, MS 39564, United States of America;4. Thad Cochran Marine Aquaculture Center, 703 E. Beach Dr., University of Southern Mississippi, Ocean Springs, MS 39564, United States of America |
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| Abstract: | The supralittoral salt marshes of the North Sea are marked by high halophyte primary productivity. The environmental factors are strongly fluctuating. Despite these features the metazoan meiofaunal abundance is equal to that found in other littoral habitats. On average 1250 marine metazoans are found per 10 cm2 in ungrazed and 770 per 10 cm2 in sheep-grazed supralittoral salt marshes. Nematoda dominate in numerical abundance, Oligochaeta in biomass. Plathelminthes account for 15% of marine metazoans in ungrazed and 5% in grazed salt marshes.Total plathelminth abundance increases with halophyte density, whereas the abundance of diatom-feeding Plathelminthes decreases. In ungrazed marshes on average 104 Plathelminthes are found per 10 cm2, accounting for a biomass of 0.65 g DW·m−2. In sheep-grazed marshes the average abundance is only 32 individuals per 10 cm2, accounting for a biomass of 0.1 g DW·m−2. Average individual weight is 3.2 μg DW or 2.5 μg AFDW.In grazed salt marshes, 30% of plathelminthes feed on diatoms, 66% are predators, and 4% feed on bacteria (gut analysis). In ungrazed salt marshes only 3% are diatom-feeders, and 90% are predators feeding on Nematoda, Copepoda, Oligochaeta, and smaller Plathelminthes. Presumably plathelminthes are top predators on the salt marsh meiofauna. |
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