Benthic productivity and consumption in Galveston Bay

Benthic infaunal biomass and individual body weight data were converted into secondary productivity estimates for Galveston Bay, Texas using five estimation methods. These methods yielded an approximate five-fold range in results. Two methods based solely on biomass and individual body weight yielded the lowest productivity estimates, whereas methods that incorporated environmental parameters (temperature and depth) yielded higher results. Two independent methods of assessing the predatory demand on benthic macroinvertebrates yielded similar estimates. In years when benthic productivity was low, the predatory demand exceeded productivity in the upper bay. In years with high benthic productivity, the projected consumption by the epibenthic predators was roughly 10-15% of benthic production