The Effect of an Infaunal Suspension Feeding Bivalve Mercenaria mercenaria (L.) on Benthic Recruitment*

摘要

Abstract.Animal‐animal interactions are recognized as critical in benthic invertebrate recruitment. The hypothesis tested was that benthic recruitment is more successful in low densities of infaunal suspension feeders than in high densities. Densities of young hard clamsMercenaria mercenaria(L.) ranging from 82.5 to 330m‐2were placed in defaunated boxes of sand. The mean number of species, mean number of individuals, mean wet weight biomass, mean species richness and mean dominance index per sample were calculated per density of hard clams from May to October. The experiment did not support the hypothesis. It was concluded that feeding behaviour of dense populations ofM. mercenariadid not preclude successful recruitment of other benthic spec