Estimating prey accessibility for waders: a problem still to be solved

Estimating the accessible prey fraction for short-billed waders, we used a new sampling device - the sediment- plane( Desholme t al. 1998) - to record prey density of the uppermost benthos communities in softbottom habitats. In contrast to "ordinary"core-samplers, the sediment plane allows a relatively quick sampling of the uppermost layers of the sediment and, thus, it should allow a more reliable estimate of the accessible benthos community especially of vertically mobile prey organisms such as polychaetes. To assess its usefulness, we compared samples collected with the sediment-plane that took only the uppermost 3cm of the sediment with samples taken with a core-sampler. These investigations showed significant differences between the two sampling methods. In comparison with the corresponding layer of the core samples, we found significantly higher numbers and a higher biomass for at least four polychaete species (e.g. Ragworm Nereis diversicolor) in the plane samples.Therefore, we recommend the use of the sediment-plane when studying the accessible fraction for foraging waders especially when studying short-billed species.