Brown shrimp (Crangon crangon, L.) functional response to density of different sized juvenile bivalves Macoma balthica (L.) |
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Authors: | Henrike Andresen Jaap van der Meer |
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Institution: | a Department of Marine Ecology, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), P.O. Box 59, 1790 AB Den Burg (Texel), The Netherlands b Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Department of Theoretical Biology, Vrije Universiteit, de Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands |
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Abstract: | Variability in infaunal bivalve abundance in the Wadden Sea is largely determined by recruitment variability. Post-settlement, but pre-recruitment bivalve mortality is high and related to the occurrence of their most abundant predator, the brown shrimp Crangon crangon. To investigate if the mortality patterns of newly settled bivalves can be explained by the foraging behavior of brown shrimp, we carried out experiments on shrimp functional response to three size classes of juveniles of the Baltic Tellin Macoma balthica. The functional response curves for all three prey sizes (0.62 mm, 0.73 mm, and 0.85 mm) were the hyperbolic Holling's type II. The attack rate was highest for the smallest prey size (a = 0.31, medium and large prey a = 0.22); the handling time was longest for the largest prey size (Th = 29 s, small and medium prey Th = 15 s). Thus, a large body size is advantageous for the bivalves over the whole density range. Knowledge of individual foraging behavior is needed to model predation mortality of bivalves. The consumption rates in the experiment were theoretically high enough to account for M. balthica mortality in the field. |
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Keywords: | Density-dependence Functional response Macoma balthica Recruitment Size-dependent predation |
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