Abstract
While it is now accepted that meiofauna are an important food source for numerous juvenile fish, the impact of predation on field populations of meiofauna remains controversial. We conducted a field-caging experiment to determine the role of predation in structuring meiobenthic communities in situ. Cages excluding predators and cages enclosing low and high densities of juvenile spot Leiostomus xanthurus Lacépède, a common estuarine fish from the southeastern U.S.A., were placed on a mudflat in a randomized complete block design to determine the in situ effects of juvenile spot predation on meiobenthos. Juvenile spot predation was only significant for those prey taxa or species with a high proportion of their population in the top few millimeters of sediment. Copepods and their nauplii, specifically the epibenthic species, were most affected by juvenile spot predation.
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