Abstract
Weekly sampling over a two year period from a muddy sand bottom in the polyhaline York River, Virginia, U.S.A., clearly identified the pattern of recruitment and survival of the dominant annelid species. Three intermingled recruitment strategies and two survival patterns were observed, ranging from the classic opportunistic life style of mass recruitment over short time periods followed by mass mortality to prolonged recruitment with lower mortality. Qualitatively the annelid assemblage was very similar from year to year with most of the changes being quantitative. Oligochaetes, Tubificoides spp., were the most stable and characteristic members of the annelid assemblage.
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Contribution No. 1118 of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science
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Diaz, R.J. Short term dynamics of the dominant annelids in a polyhaline temperate estuary. Hydrobiologia 115, 153–158 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00027910
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00027910