MACNBR   00242
MUSEO ARGENTINO DE CIENCIAS NATURALES "BERNARDINO RIVADAVIA"
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
Separating the effects of physical and biological aspects of mussel beds on their associated assemblages
Autor/es:
M. G. PALOMO; J. PEOPLE; M. G. CHAPMAN; A. J. UNDERWOOD
Revista:
MARINE ECOLOGY PROGRESS SERIES
Referencias:
Año: 2007 vol. 344 p. 131 - 142
ISSN:
0171-8630
Resumen:
ABSTRACT: Mussels provide habitat for diverse assemblages and have a major influence on local
biodiversity. Organisms may be associated with the physical structure of the mussels or mussel beds,
with biological characteristics of the shells of the mussels or with the living mussels themselves. We
examined colonisation of experimentally-built patches of live mussels, dead mussel shells and resin
mimics to test models regarding these cues. The sessile assemblage on the valves of the mussels and
the mobile assemblage living in the spaces among the mussels were separately examined to evaluate
whether they respond in the same way. In addition, the experiment incorporated 2 levels of clumping
of mussels to represent sparse and clumped mussel beds after 5 and 9 mo of deployment of the
patches. With few exceptions, there was no effect of the types of mussels provided; similar species
and abundances were found on and among live mussels, dead shells and resin mimics after both time
periods. Therefore, it appears that mussel beds act predominantly as physical habitats for these
fauna. In contrast, the degree of clumping of mussels in a patch had major effects. After 5 mo, barnacles
and spirorbid polychaetes had greater covers on the valves of sparsely packed mussels than on
clumped mussels. The opposite pattern was shown by spirorbids and serpulids after 9 mo, although
barnacles retained their original pattern. Some mobile taxa showed greater abundances in clumped
than sparse patches, but these differences largely disappeared when the data were corrected for the
number of mussels. Therefore, mobile taxa appeared to respond directly to the number of mussels in
a patch; more mussels created more habitat. This was not the case for the sessile assemblage, where
mussel shells in sparse beds appeared to provide different habitat from those in clumped beds.