Estuarine Subtidal Sand: Open, Deep

Assemblages in these habitats vary with depth.  The shallower areas are current-swept where little organic debris can accumulate, while debris does accumulate in deeper zones.  Some gravel may be present, especially deeper.

-15-30 m :

Diagnostic Species

Beds of the sea pen Ptilosarcus guerneyi or of the tube-building polychaete Phyllochaetopterus prolifica, and their associates (below).

Common Associates

Tunicates such as Chelyosoma, many starfish including Mediaster aequalis, Hippasteria spp., Luidia foliolata, Pisaster brevispinus, and Evasterias troschelii, many nudibranchs, especially Armina californica, Dendronotus spp., and Tritonia festiva.  Some areas have beds of geoducks (Panope abrupta), with other bivalves such as Psephidia lordi, Tellina carpenteri, Saxidomus giganteus, and Tresus spp., the burrowing anemone Pachycerianthus fimbriatus, the gastropods Nassarius mendicus and Polinices lewisii, and Octopus rubescens.  Fish include sanddabs, C-O sole, snake prickleback, tomcod, and dogfish.

Sites Surveyed

Golden Gardens, Alki Point, Brace Point, Windy Point (Kitsap Peninsula), West Point, Howe Sound (British Columbia).

Sources

Birkeland, 1968; Shimek, 1977 and unpubl. data; Wennekens, 1959; Harman et al., 1977; McDaniel, 1973; Goodwin, 1973; R. Anderson unpubl. data.

>30 m :

Diagnostic Species

The bivalves Astarte sp., Nuculana minuta, Nemocardium centifilosum, and Megacrenella columbiana, the snail Bittium attenuatum, and the polychaete Chaetozone setosa.

Common Associates

The bivalves Mysella tumida and Chlamys spp., the pea crabs Pinnixa spp., the amphipod Byblis veleronis, and chaetopterid polychaetes.

Sites Surveyed

Central Puget Sound, West Point.

Sources

Lie, 1968; Harman et al., 1977.