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Mussels in seagrass meadows: their influence on macroinvertebrate abundance and secondary production in the northern Gulf of Mexico

John F. valentinele,L. K.,Heck

Published 1994 in Oceanographic Literature Review

ABSTRACT

From 1989 to 1990, we studied a previously undescribed mussel Modiolus americanus (Leach) habitat (with densities as high as 2000 ind. m-2) within the seagrass meadows of St. Joseph Bay, Florida, USA. Using suction sampling, we compared macroinvertebrate abundance, biomass, and annual production estimates in mussel habitat with 3 other habitats: monotypic stands of Thalassia testudinum (Banks ex Konig), Halodule wrightii Aschers and unvegetated sand flats. Previous studies have positively correlated macrofaunal densities and species number with measures of vegetation abundance or architecture. This relationship was not found to be strong in our study. Macroinvertebrate abundance, biomass, and annual production were usually equivalent or higher in mussel than in the other 3 habitats despite aboveground seagrass biomass usually being intermediate between pure stands of T testudinum and H. wrightii, and leaf surface area lowest. Of particular interest was annual macroinvertebrate production whlch ranged from 228.77 to 428.59 g ash-free dry mass (AFDW) m-2 in mussel habitat, followed in descending order by pure stands of T. testudinum (144.90 to 245.44 g AFDW m-'), H. wrightii (83.98 to 180.44 g AFDW m-2), and sand flats (19.83 to 42.47 g AFDW m-'). These production estimates illustrate the positive effect that mussels can have in elevating already high levels of macroinvertebrate production in seagrass meadows.

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