Abstract
Sediment-dwelling animals (infauna) in marine soft-bottom habitats often lose body parts exposed above the sediment surface to browsing predators. Such tissue loss can cause reduced activity, feeding, growth, and reproduction. Browsing (or sublethal) predation may also influence competitive interactions via changes in sediment disturbance activity. Increased browsing rates should result in decreased sediment disturbance. We quantified the area of sediment disturbed by groups of spionid polychaetes subject to different regimes of feeding palp loss. For Pseudopolydora kempi (Southern), cores with higher numbers of regenerating worms had less area of surface sediment disturbed (reductions ranged from 30% to nearly 100%), and this effect persisted for at least 1 wk. Fecal production was similarly reduced. Fecal production by another spionid, Rhynchospio glutaeus (Ehlers), was reduced only when all worms in a core were regenerating both feeding palps. Tube-building was not affected in either species. By quantifying the zone of influence of browsed infauna, we can make better predictions of the level of browsing necessary to reduce competitive and adult-larval interactions.
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