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artículos
Título:
Effect of Spartina alterniflora Loisel on growth of the stout razor clam Tagelus plebeius (Lightfoot, 1786) in a SW Atlantic estuary
Autor/es:
MARIANA ADDINO; DIANA I. MONTEMAYOR; MAURICIO ESCAPA; FERNANDA ALVAREZ; MACARENA VALIÑAS; BETINA LOMOVASKY; OSCAR IRIBARNE
Revista:
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL MARINE BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY
Editorial:
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
Referencias:
Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2015
ISSN:
0022-0981
Resumen:
Aquatic organisms that produce epibenthic structures such as saltmarsh plants play key roles in habitat functioning through their ecosystem engineering effects. Intertidal Spartina species are well known for modifying tidal hydrodynamic and sediment processes, affecting cohabiting infaunal organisms. The stout razor clam Tagelus plebeius is an infaunal filter-feeding species that inhabits a broad range of mudflats (MF) and Spartina saltmarshes (SM) along the American Atlantic coast. Through descriptive and experimental approaches conducted at the Bahía Blanca estuary (Argentina, 38º 47?S, 62º 20?W), we evaluated ecosystem engineer effects of Spartina alterniflora (due to changes in sediment and water characteristics) on somatic and shell growth of T. plebeius. Comparison of bulk sediment parameters indicated that the sediment is more easily eroded in the SM than in the MF, but softer in the latest. In addition, food supply for clams (i.e., total particulate organic matter) was higher in the MF although food quality (i.e., percentage of organic matter in the water column) was in general higher in SM. Shell growth was higher but clam condition index (CI) was lower in the MF, and the opposite pattern was found in the SM. These results represent an uncoupling between shell and somatic growth with a positive effect of S. alterniflora on the CI of clams.