STUDIES OF MESOHERBIVORY IN AQUARIA AND IN AN UNBARRICADED MARICULTURE FARM ON THE CHINESE COAST

The effects upon macrophytic and epiphytic algae of caprellid amphipods, including Mayer, and of gammarid amphipods, including Ampithoe lacertosa, Jassa falcata and Pontogenia rostrata , were studied in aquaria and in a coastal mariculture farm near Qingdao, People's Republic of China. The macrophytic species studied included Enteromorpha linza, Gracilaria asiatica, Gracilaria lemaneiformis and Scytosiphon lomentaria . Caprellids prevented epiphytic overgrowth of G. asiatica when added to plants in an experimental, open-ocean, mariculture farm, despite the presence of numerous amphipod predator (e.g. the fishes Hexagrammos otakii and Sebastes thompsoni . Periodic removals of all (naturally colonizing) amphipods from another group of plants in the farm resulted in heavy epiphytic overgrowth. Since these results were obtained in an unbarricaded mariculture farm, the authors conclude that mesoherbivores may have large effects upon algal community structure in temperate intertidal and subtidal habitats.