The body of literature relating to the population- community interface in marine soft-bottom systems falls roughly into two classes. The more common view has been to approach the interface from above, by studying patterns of community structure and function and relate these patterns to theories concerning the interactions between populations and how species life histories relate to the nature of the environment. The other class of studies approaches the population-community interface from below by examining details of selected populations of organisms and relating theses patterns to theories concerning the interactions between populations and the nature of the environment. This research provides a direct assessment of the contribution that population-level processes, including life history dependent demographic dynamics, make to key processes controlling infaunal community structure. More generally, it will add significantly to our understanding of infaunal demographic dynamics and how they vary with habitat conditions. In addition it will provide population-level information with bearing on other areas of benthic research such as secondary production, foraging tactics and deposit feeding.
