Habitat associations of estuarine species: Comparisons of intertidal mudflat, seagrass (Zostera marina), and oyster (Crassostrea gigas) habitats |
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Authors: | Geoffrey R Hosack Brett R Dumbauld Jennifer L Ruesink David A Armstrong |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-2258, USA;(2) The Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine & Coastal Sciences, University of South Carolina, 607 EWS Building, Columbia, SC 29208, USA |
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Abstract: | The complexity of habitat structure created by aquatic vegetation is an important factor determining the diversity and composition
of soft-sediment coastal communities. The introduction of estuarine organisms, such as oysters or other forms of aquaculture,
that compete with existing forms of habitat structure, such as seagrass, may affect the availability of important habitat
refugia and foraging resources for mobile estuarine fish and decapods. Fish and invertebrate communities were compared between
adjacent patches of native seagrass (Zostera marina), nonnative cultured oyster (Crassostrea gigas), and unvegetated mudflat within a northeastern Pacific estuary. The composition of epibenthic meiofauna and small macrofaunal
organisms, including known prey of fish and decapods, was significantly related to habitat type. Densities of these epifauna
were significantly higher in structured habitat compared to unstructured mudflat. Benthic invertebrate densities were highest
in seagrass. Since oyster aquaculture may provide a structural substitute for seagrass being associated with increased density
and altered composition of fish and decapod prey resources relative to mudflat, it was hypothesized that this habitat might
also alter habitat preferences of foraging fish and decapods. The species composition of fish and decapods was more strongly
related to location within the estuary than to habitat, and fish and decapod species composition responded on a larger landscape
scale than invertebrate assemblages. Fish and decapod species richness and the size of ecologically and commercially important
species, such as Dungeness crab (Cancer magister), English sole (Parophrys vetulus), or lingcod (Ophiodon elongatus), were not significantly related to habitat type. |
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