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Benthic Predators and Northern Quahog (=Hard Clam) (Mercenaria Mercenaria Linnaeus, 1758) Populations Eileen Polyakov Old Dominion University

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Benthic Predators and Northern Quahog (=Hard Clam) (Mercenaria Mercenaria Linnaeus, 1758) Populations Eileen Polyakov Old Dominion University Old Dominion University ODU Digital Commons CCPO Publications Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography 2007 Benthic Predators and Northern Quahog (=Hard Clam) (Mercenaria Mercenaria Linnaeus, 1758) Populations Eileen Polyakov Old Dominion University John N. Kraeuter Eileen E. Hofmann Old Dominion University, [email protected] Stuart C. Buckner Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/ccpo_pubs Repository Citation Polyakov, Eileen; Kraeuter, John N.; Hofmann, Eileen E.; and Buckner, Stuart C., "Benthic Predators and Northern Quahog (=Hard Clam) (Mercenaria Mercenaria Linnaeus, 1758) Populations" (2007). CCPO Publications. 43. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/ccpo_pubs/43 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography at ODU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in CCPO Publications by an authorized administrator of ODU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BENTHIC PREDATORS AND NORTHERN QUAHOG (=HARD CLAM) (MERCENARIA MERCENARIA LINNAEUS, 1758) POPULATIONS Author(s): O. POLYAKOV, J. N. KRAEUTER, E. E. HOFMANN, S. C. BUCKNER, V. M. BRICELJ, E. N. POWELL, and J. M. KLINCK Source: Journal of Shellfish Research, 26(4):995-1010. Published By: National Shellfisheries Association DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2983/0730-8000(2007)26[995:BPANQH]2.0.CO;2 URL: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.2983/0730-8000%282007%2926%5B995%3ABPANQH %5D2.0.CO%3B2 BioOne (www.bioone.org) is a nonprofit, online aggregation of core research in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences. BioOne provides a sustainable online platform for over 170 journals and books published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses. Your use of this PDF, the BioOne Web site, and all posted and associated content indicates your acceptance of BioOne’s Terms of Use, available at www.bioone.org/page/terms_of_use. Usage of BioOne content is strictly limited to personal, educational, and non-commercial use. Commercial inquiries or rights and permissions requests should be directed to the individual publisher as copyright holder. BioOne sees sustainable scholarly publishing as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting authors, nonprofit publishers, academic institutions, research libraries, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to critical research. JOBNAME: jsr 26#4 2007 PAGE: 1 OUTPUT: Thursday December 20 16:13:19 2007 tsp/jsr/153037/26-4-18a Journal of Shellfish Research, Vol. 26, No. 4, 995–1010, 2007. BENTHIC PREDATORS AND NORTHERN QUAHOG (¼HARD CLAM) (MERCENARIA MERCENARIA LINNAEUS, 1758) POPULATIONS O. POLYAKOV,1* J. N. KRAEUTER,2 E. E. HOFMANN,1 S. C. BUCKNER,3 V. M. BRICELJ,4 E. N. POWELL2 AND J. M. KLINCK1 1Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia; 2Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, Rutgers University, 6959 Miller Avenue, Port Norris, New Jersey; 3Town of Islip, Environmental Control, 401 Main Street, Islip, New York; 4Institute for Marine Biosciences, National Research Council, 1411 Oxford Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 3Z1 ABSTRACT Increased numbers of benthic predators, especially crabs, have been proposed as a factor contributing to the decline of hard clams (Mercenaria mercenaria Linnaeus, 1758) in Great South Bay, NY. The long-term trend in benthic predators in this system was examined using observations on the distribution and abundance of predators that have been collected by the Town of Islip, NY as part of an annual survey of hard clam populations. The survey began in 1978 and extends to the present and provides concurrent observations of habitat (sediment type, and presence/absence of eelgrass), and hard clam size-frequency distribution and abundance. Predator type and abundance were reported from 1978 to 1981 and 1991 to 2003, which represents one of the most comprehensive benthic predator data sets currently available for any estuarine system. The annual averages of predator abundance in the survey area primarily show interannual fluctuations in abundance. Xanthid crabs (mud crabs, primarily Dispanopeus sayi Smith, 1869) were the numerically dominant predator in the system; blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, 1895) appeared in the late 1990s. Hard clam abundance has declined by 44% since the early 1990s. An Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) Analysis of the predator and hard clam data sets showed that fluctuations in predator abundance are: 1) mostly in phase over the survey region and 2) dominated by year-to-year fluctuations in abundance. The EOF results for the hard clams show that hard clam abundance fluctuations are: 1) in phase over the survey region and 2) dominated by a decreasing trend in abundance over the time series. The primary EOF modes essentially were uncoupled, which implies no strong predator- prey interactions between the predators and hard clams. By inference, increasing predator abundance does not appear to be a primary factor producing the long-term decline in hard clam populations. Predation pressure per recruit may still have increased because of declining hard clam population abundance and the concomitant decline in recruitment. KEY WORDS: benthic predators, crab predation, Mercenaria mercenaria, quahog, hard clam, empirical orthogonal function analysis INTRODUCTION added difficulty arises from the seemingly low level of juvenile abundance relative to most other bivalve species (Kraeuter et al. For a long time, predation has been recognized as an submitted). As a result, much of the knowledge about predation important process in structuring benthic communities (Connell effects comes from laboratory or small-scale experimental field 1961, Connell 1975, Thorson 1966, Wilson 1991). Bivalve studies (see review in Kraeuter 2001). population abundance in soft sediment intertidal areas is Hard clams are preyed upon by a wide range of benthic influenced by epibenthic predators such as fish and crabs predators (Gibbons & Blogoslawski 1989, Rice 1992, Kraeuter (MacKenzie 1977, Whetstone & Eversole 1981, Peterson 2001). The available measurements of consumption rates suggest 1982), infaunal predators (Ambrose 1991, Landry et al. 1993), that crabs are a significant predator for postsettlement hard clam as well as other predators such as birds (Reise 1985, Sanchez- populations (Irlandi & Peterson 1991, Kraeuter 2001), especially Salizar et al. 1987, Griffiths 1990). In some soft sediment for hard clams less than 20–25 mm (Kraeuter 2001). An environments, such as unvegetated areas, benthic predation is implication of these studies is that crabs can significantly influence a primary determinant of system structure and production the distribution and abundance of postsettlement hard clams. (Reise 1977, Virnstein 1979, Jensen & Jensen 1985). Predation The hard clam has supported an economically important and food limitation effects on bivalve postsettlement popula- fishery for the state of New York. Historically the fishery in tions can, at times, be more important in the regulation of Great South Bay (Fig. 1) provided about 80% of the total populations than the availability of larvae (Muus 1973, Powell annual harvest (Buckner 1984). The abundance of hard clams in et al. 1984, Guillou & Tartu 1994, Olafsson et al. 1994). Few Great South Bay has declined during the past 30 y, in spite of studies have explicitly examined the role of benthic predators on reductions in fishing pressure and sustained restoration efforts Northern Quahog (¼hard clam) (Mercenaria mercenaria Lin- (Kraeuter et al. submitted). Changes in the benthic predator naeus, 1758) population structure (e.g., Peterson 1982), but community, including increased population levels of blue crabs substantial information is available on predator/prey interac- (Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, 1895), have been suggested as a tions (see review in Kraeuter 2001). The difficulty in designing factor contributing to the continuing decline in hard clam experiments to eliminate potential artifacts such as migration of populations. Laboratory and field studies (reviewed in Kraeuter predators has greatly hindered establishing direct links between 2001) have shown that blue crabs can consume large numbers of benthic predators and population processes. For hard clams, an young-of-the-year hard clams. Since the late 1970s, the Town of Islip, NY has conducted *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] annual surveys in the western portion of Great South Bay (Fig. 995 JOBNAME: jsr 26#4 2007 PAGE: 2 OUTPUT: Thursday December 20 16:13:20 2007 tsp/jsr/153037/26-4-18a 996 POLYAKOV ET AL. grid with a nominal cell size of 400 m by 400 m. The sampling pattern is based on a random block sampling design (Buckner 1984). The number of sample sites occupied in a given year is variable (Table 1), but is sufficient to provide coverage of the survey area. Duplicate samples were usually taken at the sample sites and, in some years, multiple samples were taken at some sample sites (Table 1). Details of the sampling procedures are given in Buckner (1984); a few relevant to this analysis are described here. The sampling gear is a clamshell bucket operated from a double- spool crane mounted on a 6.1 m by 12.2 m barge towed to each sample site (Buckner 1984). Each clamshell bucket sample was washed through a series of wire screens, with the final screen having a 6.4-mm mesh. The number and size of live hard clams and articulated valves of dead clams were recorded. The thickness (left-right dimension) of each hard clam was measured to the nearest millimeter. The types of predators were noted and Figure 1. Map of the southeastern portion of New York showing the abundance of each estimated. location of Great South Bay in relation to Long Island, New York. The box indicates the portion of Great South Bay that is sampled during the Hard clam thickness has been measured at all sampling Town of Islip annual hard clam survey. The inset map shows details of the sites since the start of the annual survey (Table 1). Predator survey region. Geographic location names are abbreviated as: West Fire abundance and type were measured in 17 of the 26 y, with the Island, W.
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