Skip to main content
ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Newport, Oregon » Pacific Shellfish Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #410720
Research Project: Improving the Sustainability and Productivity of Shellfish Culture in Pacific Estuaries

Location: Pacific Shellfish Research Unit

Title: Evaluating recent shifts in long-term trajectories of burrowing shrimp in two US west coast estuaries

Author
item Dumbauld, Brett
item McIntyre, Brooke
item LEWIS, NATHANIEL - Oregon State University
item RUESINK, JENNIFER - University Of Washington
item HULL, WESLEY - University Of Washington

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/11/2023
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Ghost shrimp, Neotrypaea californiensis, are ecosystem engineers as their burrowing behavior influences estuarine intertidal communities along the US Pacific coast. Populations of these shrimp have been monitored in Willapa Bay, Washington for three decades and in Yaquina Bay, Oregon since 2005. Ghost shrimp density at individual monitoring locations increased dramatically in the 1990s in Willapa Bay, declined almost as precipitously from 2000 through 2010, and has since increased again. Similar though less dramatic population fluctuations have occurred in Yaquina Bay since 2005. These shrimp have pelagic larvae that develop in the adjacent coastal ocean and then “recruit” as postlarvae back to estuaries. Significant relationships between the number of recruits and the number of larger 1 year-old shrimp present have been documented for both of these estuaries, but some precipitous population declines have recently been observed at several locations in Willapa Bay, where larger/older shrimp have either suffered mortality or moved/receded. Results from surveys suggest that shrimp continue to recruit to areas where larger adults have disappeared, but small juveniles are then also subject to mortality or move from these areas. Population fluctuations are of significant concern to shellfish growers, especially in Willapa Bay where a program to control these shrimp on shellfish beds was recently suspended, but it is important to understand the mechanisms that influence post-recruitment shrimp survival due to their broader role and influence on other habitats at the estuarine ecosystem scale.