Figure 2c

 

 




Juvenile striped bass, although itself an introduced species, is considered to be an indicator species for San Francisco Bay, and its populations are greatly in decline. Striped bass depend upon mysids as their primary food source and the mysid population has been depressed due to the immense water filtering capacity of a more recently introduced Asian clam Potamocorbula amurensis which has depleted the standing stock of phytoplankton (Orsi and Mecum 1996, Nichols 1988). The introduction of large numbers of mitten crab zoeae may act as a food source for planktivorous juvenile striped bass, but they too would be reduced in numbers by the diminished phytoplankton stocks as hypothesized in Figure 2c. Thus any ecological impacts of mitten crab zoeae are masked by the total ecosystem change caused by the Asian clam.

 

amended 6/10/98