Note
Traps baited with plant remains, either Thalassia or Sargassum, were deployed for 30 h on the seabed at depths of 500 and 10 m in the Bahamas. On retrieval, the deep traps had been colonised by three species of amphipod whilst inert controls (traps containing black plastic bags) had attracted only a single specimen of a fourth species. These data suggest the amphipods are attracted to plant debris as food rather than as shelter. Significantly more amphipods were attracted at the deepwater site than at the shallow site. We suggest that algal/seagrass foodfalls are a significant pathway by which energy enters the deep-sea and will be colonised rapidly by deepwater invertebrates.