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Body size, population density and factors regulatingsuspension-cultured blue mussel (Mytilus spp.) populations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2010

Marcel Fréchette ,
Myriam Lachance-Bernard  and
Gaétan Daigle
Marcel Fréchette*
Affiliation:
Institut Maurice-Lamontagne, Ministère des Pêches et des Océans, CP 1000, Mont-Joli, Québec, Canada G5H 3Z4
Myriam Lachance-Bernard
Affiliation:
Institut Maurice-Lamontagne, Ministère des Pêches et des Océans, CP 1000, Mont-Joli, Québec, Canada G5H 3Z4
Gaétan Daigle
Affiliation:
Département de Mathématiques et de Statistique, Faculté des sciences et de génie, Pavillon Alexandre-Vachon, Université Laval, Québec, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada
*
a Corresponding author:marcel.frechette@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
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Abstract

We sampled 27 month-old mussel populations grown on collector ropes in Cascapédia Bay,Quebec, to test whether density-dependent growth was present concomitantly toself-thinning, a process which was previously shown to occur in this system and thought tobe driven by spatial constraints. Biomass-density curves of raw samples were curvilinear,suggesting density-dependent growth. However, at least two cohorts were present.Fractionating the samples on the basis of age yielded a linear relationship for the main,2 year-old cohort. This implies density-independent growth and rules out food regulationin these populations. Therefore, our results are consistent with inferences drawnpreviously from the values of the self-thinning exponent, that is, space-regulatedself-thinning. Our results suggest that curvilinearity of the raw biomass-density curvesresulted from a bias caused by including the 1 year-old cohort and spat of the year in theanalysis. This conclusion is supported by a model showing that samples with mixed cohortscan yield linear, concave or convex biomass-density curves without density-dependentgrowth. The shape of the curves depends on the scaling relationships between cohortabundances. It appears that the shape of biomass-density curves may be a usefulcomplementary criterion – in addition to the value of self-thinning exponents – for theidentification of food or space as factors regulating cultured populations.

Keywords

Mussel culturePopulation regulationMussel densitySelf-thinning
Type
Research Article
Information
Aquatic Living Resources , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , July 2010 , pp. 247 - 254
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, IFREMER, IRD 2010

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