Population Ecology - Biotic interactions
Interactions among species and between species and the environment are experimentally analysed. This includes direct and indirect interactions, for example between predators and their prey, or predator-prey interactions when the predator is limited by another resource. Currently this research concentrates on interactions in mussel beds.
A piece of gauze dug horizontally into the sediment at 5 cm depth prevents lugworms (Arenicola marina) from establishment.....
... and enables to study the effects of this bioturbator on the sediment stability and the benthic fauna and microflora.
Kruse I, Buhs F (2000) Preying at the edge of the sea: the nermertine Tetrastemma melanocephalum and its amphipod prey on high intertidal sandflats. Hydrobiologia 426:43-55
Menn I, Armonies W (1999) Predatory Promesostoma species (Plathelminthes, Rhabdocoela) in the Wadden Sea. J Sea Res 41:309-320
Lackschewitz D, Reise K (1998) Macrofauna on flood delta shoals in the Wadden Sea with an underground association between the lugworm Arenicola marina and the amphipod Urothoe poseidonis. Helgoländer Meeresunters 52:147-158