A distance-based permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) was performed to determine the effects of chronic acidification regime and episodic exposure treatment on patterns in oyster-associated
epifaunal communities (Anderson 2001).
The physical disturbance caused by towing gears effect the benthic ecosystem by reducing or changing the abundance and distribution patterns of both infaunal and
epifaunal communities.
The benthic foraminiferal assemblages are diverse (average 90 species), with similar proportions of infaunal and
epifaunal taxa.
Studies in which bottom grabs were used to sample organisms in unconsolidated sediments have revealed a measurable impact from trawling on an infaunal community in the North Sea from a single pass of a beam trawl, even in an environment that had been trawled heavily for decades (Reiss et ah, 2009), but in a study in South Africa, no measurable impacts of additional trawling to the
epifaunal community in a continuously trawled area (Atkinson et ah, 2011).
Nutrient impacts on
epifaunal density and species composition in a subtropical seagrass bed.
Mud crabs (Xanthidae) in Chesapeake Bay: claw characteristics and predation on
epifaunal bivalves.
Bingham BL (1992) Life histories in an
epifaunal community: coupling of adult and larval processes.
epifaunal benthic foraminifera from the Arctic Ocean, found that the great majority of living benthic species occurred in the upper 2 cm of sediment.
Scales of life range across microbial, meiofaunal, mesofaunal, maerofaunal, and megafaunal; modes of life include planktonic, pelagic, nektic, benthic (motile and sessile),
epifaunal, semi-infaunal, and infaunal.
The lack of plugs in many specimens likewise precludes their origin as a vertically-oriented burrow or as an escape trace by an infaunal or
epifaunal animal like an anemone.