They predominately live in mid-high shore rock pools and often experience a wide range of temperature and salinity fluctuation.
By loosening sediments, reducing anoxia and enhancing organic content, C. kraussi may engineer these high shore habitats to ameliorate environmental stresses or increase food availability.
In particular care has to be taken when trying to enhance durability by the use of materials with high shore hardness as this choice can noticeably reduce pressure sensitivity.
Bare space increased following canopy removal, particularly on the higher shore treatment at one site, because of the burn-off of newly exposed turfing coralline algae, which had not fully recovered by the end of the experiment.
In this paper we document the contrasting effects of ecosystem engineering by the cordgrass Spartina maritima and the burrowing sandprawn Callianassa kraussi on physico-chemical characteristics, microflora, macrofaunal community structure and morphological attributes in the high shore intertidal sandflats of Langebaan Lagoon, a marine-dominated system on the west coast of South Africa.
Greater damage of this layer on the high shore may be related to higher hydrodynamic and wind stress experienced on the high shore [36].
This provides an explanation for the fact that it exhibits higher mortality rates than M. galloprovincialis when the two are transplanted to the higher shore [ 44, 47].
The orthoses are made of ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) of high (Shore A 75°), medium (Shore A 60°) or low (Shore A 52°) density, and have an inbuilt arch support and 6° varus wedge as specified by the manufacturer.
In addition, recruitment failure (low settlement, high mortality) contributes to the exclusion of P. perna from the high shore, while the exclusion of M. galloprovincialis from the low mussel zone is likely to be by post-recruitment mortality [ 49], possibly strengthened by periodic heavy recruitment of P. perna [ 10].
The macroalga Fucus spiralis is the only high-shore canopy forming species present in the Azores.
