Predation on a burrowing shrimp: distribution and community consequences Academic Article uri icon

Sustainable Development Goals

  • SDG 14: Life Below Water 

Abstract

  • Predation has been shown to be an important factor determining the species composition of certain communities. However, its effect in marine soft-sediment habitats is not well understood. This study examines the role of predation in limiting the intertidal distribution of a burrowing ghost shrimp, Callianassacaliforniensis Dana, on an Oregon tideflat. The ghost shrimp displays a distinctive zonation pattern in many Pacific northwest embayments, with dense beds of this deep burrower restricted primarily to the midintertidal zone. Direct effects of surface predators in maintaining this zonation were examined by excluding predators immediately seaward of the lower edge of a dense bed and by transplanting ghost shrimp to the low intertidal in cages. Diets and distributions of potential predators were also observed. With the exclusion of surface predators, ghost shrimp migrated downward in the intertidal zone and showed high survival in transplanted areas. Examination of predator diets indicates that at least one common fish, the stagorn sculpin Leptocottus armatus Girard, consumes large numbers of Callianassa californiensis. Because burrowing by the ghost shrimp can affect the numbers of many other tideflat organisms, restriction of this animal to higher tidal zones allows a different assemblage of species to exist in the low intertidal than otherwise would be present. Predation on the ghost shrimp is thus an important factor determining the relative species composition of many tideflats along the Pacific coast of North America.

Publication Date

  • 1986-12-01