Abstract
The effects of hydraulic dredging on the benthic infauna of a mud bottom area were investigated in Georgia in the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. Complete displacement of the benthic community was caused by dredging; however, the community began to recover within a month following the cessation of dredging. Within two months the diversity and species composition of the dredged channel were similar to that of a control area and little change in sediment composition resulted. Thus, no apparent limitation was imposed on the normal benthic population by habitat alteration. Recolonisation was too rapid to have been caused by the settling of immature or larval stages from the water column alone. Bank slumping and migration of adult forms have been postulated as other means of recolonisation.
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