CRITICAL-EVALUATION OF SEDIMENT TURNOVER ESTIMATES FOR CALLIANASSIDAE(DECAPODA, THALASSINIDEA)

Members of the decapod family Callianassidae influence sediment dynami cs and ecosystem function via their bioturbation activities. The latte r is currently assessed by measures of sediment turnover rates which a re collected, calculated and expressed by different methods. Some esti mates, particularly extrapolations which do not consider the influence of temperature, population structure and expulsion behaviour, are lik ely to be significantly over/under estimates of sediment turnover. The refore, published values of sediment turnover by the Callianassidae ne ed to be treated with caution and are not strictly comparable. In view of the need for assessing the relative importance of callianassid bio turbation, it is suggested that attempts should be made to standardize the measurement of sediment turnover rate to allow future comparisons to be made with confidence.