This shrimp species is "an important part of the estuarine food web" in the greater San Francisco Bay.

[3] It feeds on bivalves, amphipods and foraminiferins, and is prey for various fish,[3] including striped bass, white sturgeon, Pacific tomcod and shellfish such as Dungeness crab.

Some evidence indicates the species may be protandrous hermaphrodites, which means that surviving males are transformed into females after one year of life.

The two most important natural environmental factors affecting the health of the shrimp population are water temperature and salinity.

The females then incubate from 2,000 to 8,000 eggs[2][4] and when hatched, the young shrimp migrate back to the shallower and less salty estuaries around the bay.

The Gold Rush, which proceeded commercial shrimp fishing, caused the first significant environmental damage to San Francisco Bay.

Hydraulic mining techniques introduced tens of millions of cubic meters annually of rock and soil debris into the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, the main sources of fresh water put into the bay.