Relationship of non-specific commensalism in the colonization of the deep layers of sediment

Abstract

The macrofauna of samples collected with a box-corer from northern Adriatic Sea muddy bottoms in five survey campaigns from 1985 to 1993 has been analysed separately in sediment strata of varying depth. Samples were collected before, during and after the dumping of large amounts of inert particulate material that covered the seabed and caused an almost total defaunation. After this disturbance the seabed was recolonized by a new community. This new community differed from the original one mainly on account of the abundance of Mysella bidentata, a small bivalve filter or surface deposit-feeder. In the original community M. bidentata was confined to the more superficial sediment layers (0–5 cm) at low population density. In the new community it was very abundant and evenly distributed even in the deep layers (5–20 cm). Analysis of species association performed on data from each of the 54 corer samples collected in the last sampling period, points to a marked association between M. bidentata and Nephtys incisa in deeper sediment layers. Deep layer colonization by Mysella in association with the burrowing polychaete N. incisa suggests a case of commensalism between these two species.