Factors controlling marine and estuarine sublittoral macrofauna

Abstract

The state of knowledge of marine and estuarine sublittoral benthic synecology may be said to be still in a descriptive stage of study. Much of the recent literature of the subject concerns either qualitative and quantitative descriptions of communities or associations, or concepts of such associations including diversity, stability and succession. It is the purpose of this paper to present a theory, based on a hierarchy of multiple limiting physical and biotic factors, for study of the controls governing community composition, biomass and productivity. Three major biotic factors are considered as qualitative and quantitative controls: food supply, supply of colonizing larvae, and interspecies competition. They are discussed and new techniques are suggested which may help in understanding the mechanisms of control. © 1977 Biologische Anstalt Helgoland.