Competitive interactions betweenFucus spiralisL. andF. vesiculosusL. (Fucales, Phaeophyta)
✍ Scribed by A. R. O. Chapman
- Book ID
- 104618547
- Publisher
- Springer
- Year
- 1990
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 343 KB
- Volume
- 204-205
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1573-5141
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Fucus spiralis forms a conspicuous belt in the upper intertidal on rocky shores of the NW Atlantic . The objective of this study was to determine whether competition among congeners plays a role in restricting the distribution of F. spiralis to the upper shore . A replacement series design was used to test the growth performance of F. spiralis and F. vesiculosus in monocultures and in mixtures set up in the mid shore level on an exposed rocky coast . For F. spiralis and F. vesiculosus, all individual and relative crowding coefficients were < 1 and > 1, respectively . Hence, F. vesiculosus succeeded relative to F. spiralis in all mixtures tested. This finding was confirmed by graphical analysis . Ratio diagrams showed that the outcome of long term interaction among the species is extinction of F. spiralis . The results lead to the conclusion that interaction among congeners is a major determinant of the restricted distribution of F. spiralis .