Lifespan bias explains live-dead discordance in abundance of two common bivalves

Lifespan bias potentially alters species abundance in death assemblages through the overrepresentation of short-lived organisms compared to their long-lived counterparts. Although previous work found that lifespan bias did not contribute significantly to live-dead discordance in bivalve assemblages, lifespan bias better explained discordance in two groups: longer-lived bivalve species and species with known lifespans. More studies using local, rather than global, species-wide, lifespans and mortality rates would help to determine the prevalence of lifespan bias, especially for long-lived species with known lifespans. Here, we conducted a field study at two sites in North Carolina to assess potential lifespan bias between Mercenaria mercenaria and Chione elevata, two long-lived bivalve species that can be aged directly. We compared the ability of directly measured local lifespans to that of regional and global lifespans to predict live-dead discordance between these two species. The sho...