Date of Award

Summer 1984

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Ocean & Earth Sciences

Program/Concentration

Oceanography

Committee Director

John R. McConaugha

Committee Member

Philip Mundy

Committee Member

Anthony Provenzano

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.O35S22

Abstract

Thirteen stations were occupied at two - week intervals from May through September 1980 within the York River, lower Chesapeake Bay depths encompassing the entire water column.

Three species of pagurids were identified: Pagurus longicarpus, P. pollicaris, and P. annulipes. The larvae of P. annulipes had not been previously identified from Virginian waters. The shapes of the antennae of P. pollicaris and P. annulipes weredistinctive, allowing rapid identification of these larvae. The shapes of the uropods were found to be useful in distinguishingthe glaucothoe· of P. longicarpus from P. annulipes. The larvae of these species have been confused for each other in previous studies.

The larvae of all three species were concentrated at depth. The average concentration of the water column below 6 m was found to give the most significant difference in the larval concentration when different depth strata were compared. The larvae were concentrated at depth throughout development and throughout the study area.

Determination of the spatial and temporal distributions for each developmental stage for each species revealed a seasonal offshore movement in the spatial distribution of the early zoeal stages, a stationary or slightly inshore movement for the late zoeal stages, and a seasonal inshore movement in the distribution of the glaucothoe: Although the seasonal patterns in the distributions parallel each other the larval distributions showed both a temporal and spatial separation. The distribution of P. pollicaris occurred earliest in the season followed by the distributions of P. longicarpus and P. annulipes. The spatial distribution of P. longicarpus occurred closest inshore followed by the distributions for P. pollicaris and P. annulipes. The majority of the larval development of all three species was restricted to the Chesapeake baymouth and adjacent coastal waters.

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DOI

10.25777/mq8n-eb16

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