Effects of conspecifics on settling juveniles of the invasive golden mussel, Limnoperna fortunei

PAULA SARDIÑA; DANIEL CATALDO; DEMETRIO BOLTOVSKOY

Aquatic Sciences

Springer

Lugar: New York; Año: 2009 vol. 71 p. 479 - 486

1015-1621

We conducted a field experiment to assess theinfluence of conspecific adults on recruitment success of thegolden mussel Limnoperna fortunei. Tiles, 225 cm2 surfacearea, were used as artificial substrates in four treatments:control (blank tiles), low (800 mussels m-2), medium(4,000 mussels m-2) and high (12,000 mussels m-2) densitytreatments. Results indicated that recruitment wasstrongly affected by the presence and density of conspecifics.After one and 3 months of exposure, numbers ofrecruits were significantly higher on tiles with conspecificadults than on blank tiles, and there was a positive andsignificant relationship between the number of recruits andthe number of adults in the three treatments assayed. Also,after 3 months of exposure, recruits in all treatments withadults present were larger than recruits in the controltreatment. Our results suggest that conspecific adults have apositive effect on recruitment success and growth of newlysettled juveniles through factors that enhance larval settlingor that contribute to the survival of settlers in areascolonized by adult conspecifics.