Species densities of macrobenthos associated with seagrass: a field experimental study of predation

Caging experiments in a wide variety of marine environments over a period of almost fifty years have produced dramatic density increases of macrobenthos in the absence of predators. This study utilized predator exclusion cages in seagrass areas of a subtropical estuary in east central Florida to determine if predicted increases in density would result. Cages were erected at three sites in the Indian River estuary. At each of the three sites, four replicate box cores were taken, inside and outside the cages, at four sampling times over a period of five months. The 33 numerically most abundant taxa were selected for testing of differences in species densities by two-way multivariate analyses of variance with interaction.