Methods for estimating secondary production in marine Amphipoda

Abstract

For the 1971 year-class of Pontoporeia femorata from St. Margaret's Bay, N.S., secondary production was 11.06–13.61 g wet weight/m 2 and annual turnover ratio was 3.64–4.78 as measured by three methods. These included cohort summation of losses, integrated production from the Allen curve, and size frequency, or modified Hynes methods. Sampling bias against early life history stages of amphipods collected with sieve meshes [Formula: see text] can be corrected by back calculation from population data thus enabling cohort-based estimates of secondary production to be made.Key words: secondary production, annual turnover ratio, Pontoporeia femorata, Crustacea, Amphipoda