EFFECTS OF MENHADEN PREDATION ON PLANKTON POPULATIONS IN NARRAGANSETTBAY, RHODE-ISLAND

The Atlantic menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus, is an abundant plankton-fe eding fish that undertakes extensive seasonal migrations, moving from overwintering locations offshore south of Cape Hatteras to the mid-Atl antic Eight and New England inshore waters during spring and summer. A bioenergetic model, based on field and laboratory studies, shows that when large numbers of menhaden enter Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, during spring and early summer, they significantly influence plankton populations through size-selective grazing and nutrient regeneration. A population biomass of 9.1 x 10(6) kg of menhaden feeding for 12 h ea ch day in the upper bay would result in a substantial reduction of the instantaneous growth rate of the >20-mu m phytoplankton. Instantaneou s growth rates of zooplankton would be negative if the same population of menhaden was present, resulting in a reduction in the biomass of z ooplankton. Given the ambient phytoplankton and zooplankton population s, menhaden could achieve the seasonal growth measured in Narragansett Bay during 1976 by feeding on average about 5 h d(-1). Daily nitrogen excretion rates of the 9.1 x 106 kg menhaden population were 56.4% of the mean standing stock of ammonia-N in the upper bay. Because menhad en travel in schools their effects are likely to be intense but strong ly localized, increasing spatial heterogeneity in the ecosystem. When the fish migrate southward in the fall they transfer between 3.3% and 6.2% of the nitrogen exported annually from the bay.