Repopulation of the shallow subtidal zone by green sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis) following mass mortality in Nova Scotia, Canada

Abstract

Repopulation by green sea urchins Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis of a steeply sloping rock bottom was monitored at a wave-exposed headland (Chebucto Head) following a disease outbreak that caused mass mortality in September 1999. Density and size of urchins were sampled in four depth strata: at 8–10 m in an urchin grazing aggregation (front) along the lower margin of a kelp bed, at 12 m and 16 m on a bedrock ramp, and at 24 m on a cobble and boulder field where urchins were unaffected by the disease. Shoreward migration of adults along the ramp from the surviving population at 24 m was the primary means of repopulation, which was augmented by recruitment via planktonic larvae. At 16 m, urchin density stabilized (at ∼50 urchins m−2) within six months of the die-off while repopulation at 12 m took more than eight months. A grazing front of large urchins (40–60 mm, test diameter) had formed along the lower edge of a kelp bed by January 2002, which reached densities of up to 284 urchins m−2. Video surveys at Chebucto Head and two adjacent locations of similar bathymetry revealed an extensive urchin population between 25 and 55 m depth, with a mean density on rocky substrata of 73 urchins m−2.