PREDATION ON MEIOFAUNA BY JUVENILE SPOT LEIOSTOMUS-XANTHURUS (PISCES)IN CONTAMINATED SEDIMENTS FROM CHARLESTON HARBOR, SOUTH-CAROLINA, USA

Meiofauna are a major food source for estuarine juvenile fish despite the fact that meiofauna often live in close contact with sediment-asso ciated contaminants. Although there is laboratory evidence that fish f eeding on contaminated meiofauna can build up significant contaminant body burdens, whether or not fish predation on meiofauna is affected b y sediment contamination in the field has not been well established. T o answer this question, the number and taxa of meiobenthic prey items consumed by fish were compared between contaminated and uncontaminated habitats. A model predator, juvenile spot Leiostomus xanthurus (Pisce s) was allowed to feed on natural meiobenthic communities in experimen tal sediment microcosms. Significantly more meiofauna were observed in the uncontaminated reference site (1060 nematodes per 10 cm(2), 177 c opepods per 10 cm2) than in the contaminated site (278 nematodes per 1 0 cm(2), 97.5 copepods per 10 cm2). Although harpacticoid copepods wer e found in the foreguts of spot from both contaminated (mean 22.1 prey per fish) and uncontaminated (mean 13.7 prey per fish) sediments, the re were few, if any, significant reductions in meiofauna abundance due to predation. There were differences between contaminated and unconta minated sediments in taxa eaten by spot, but these differences were mo st likely due to differences between the meiofauna communities from th e 2 sites, not differences in fish feeding behavior. Despite the poten tial adverse effects of eating meiofauna from contaminated sediments, juvenile spot do not avoid them.