Relationships between intertidal zonation and circatidal rhythmicity in littoral gastropods
✍ Scribed by L. P. Zann
- Book ID
- 104743349
- Publisher
- Springer-Verlag
- Year
- 1973
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 738 KB
- Volume
- 18
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0025-3162
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✦ Synopsis
The presence and phase of cireatidM rhythmicity was correlated with vertical zonation and other ecological factors. Ten species were studied in the field and in aktographs under controlled conditions in the laboratory. Retina plicata, Melanerita atramentosa, Bembiciu~ nahum, Austroeochlea obtusa and Morula marginalba occupied mid-or upper-littoral zonations, and were subjected to regular tidal influence. They were active at high water and for a period after the ebb, possibly as these were the times of least desiccation. Each possessed a cireatidM activity rhythm under non-tidM conditions. 5fidlittoral Amphinerita polita and lower-littoral Theliostyla albicilla were active at low water, possibly because their preferred habitats reduced desiccation and other selective forces, for example wave action and predation, determined the phase of the rhythmicity. Supra-and upper-littoral Nodilittorina pyramidalis and Melarapha uni/asciata and lower-and infralittoral specimens of Bembicium auratum displayed no overt circatidM rhythmicity, possibly because they were not subjected to regular tidal action.