Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T02:03:52.415Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Forty Years of Changes in Species Composition and Population Density of Barnacles on a Rocky Shore Near Plymouth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

A. J. Southward
A. J. Southward
Affiliation:
Leverhulme Unit, Marine Biological Association, The Laboratory, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, PL 1 2PB
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The abundance of the common intertidal barnacles, Chthamalus montagui, Chthamalus stellatus, Semibalanus balanoides and Elminius modestus has been monitored since 1951 at a site near Cellar Beach, River Yealm, south Devon. Counts are made at 12 levels on a transect between high tide and low tide. The two chthamalids are of warm-water distribution while S. balanoides is a boreo-arctic species; changes in the abundance of these species are linked to environmental temperature. Maximum fluctuations occur in the lowermost third of the intertidal zone. The proportion of Chthamalus adults is correlated with annual mean inshore sea temperature two years earlier, while the proportion of S. balanoides adults is negatively so correlated. This relationship accounts for over 40% of the variance. A smaller part of the variance (<20%) is explained by intensity of larval settlement, also related to climate. The fourth barnacle, E. modestus, is an Australasian immigrant that arrived in England during World War II and reached south Devon in 1948. It increased during the 1950s on the transect but has since stabilized at a low level of abundance that shows large interannual variations not directly related to temperature. Between 1951 and 1975, coinciding with a secular decline in sea temperature, there was a long-term trend towards reduction of Chthamalus and increase in S. balanoides; this trend has reversed since. Removal of the long-term trend reveals a short-term fluctuation of approximately 10-y frequency that correlates with a cycle in sea temperature two years earlier. These cycles are close to the 10–11 y solar (sunspot) cycle between 1951 and 1975.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 71 , Issue 3 , August 1991 , pp. 495 - 513
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1991

References

Bassindale, R., 1964. British Barnacles. Linnean Society Synopses of the British Fauna, no 14, 68 pp.Google Scholar
Barnes, H. & Powell, H.T., 1950. The development, general morphology and subsequent elimination of barnacle populations, Balanus crenatus and Balanus balanoides, after a heavy initial settlement. Journal of Animal Ecology, 19, 175–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bishop, M.W.H., 1947. Establishment of an immigrant barnacle in British coastal waters. Nature, London, 159, 501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryan, G.W., Gibbs, P.E., Hummerstone, L.G. & Burt, G.R., 1986. The decline of the gastropod Nucella lapillus around south-west England: evidence for the effect of tributyltin from antifouling paints. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 66, 611–640.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burrows, M.T., 1988. The Comparative Biology of Chthamalus stellatus (Poli) and Chthamalus montagui Southward. PhD thesis, University of Manchester.Google Scholar
Cooper, L.H.N., 1958. Sea temperatures in Plymouth Sound. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 37, 1–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crapp, G.B., 1970. Monitoring the rocky shore. In The Ecological Effects of Oil Pollution on Littoral Communities (Ed. Cowell, E.B.), pp. 102–113. London: Institute of Petroleum.Google Scholar
Crisp, D.J., 1948. Invasion of Elminius modestus. Discovery, July 1948, 229.Google Scholar
Crisp, D.J. & Southward, A.J., 1959. The further spread of Elminius modestus in the British Isles to 1959. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 38, 429–437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crisp, D.J. & Southward, A.J., 1964. The effects of the severe winter of 1962–63 on marine life in Britain. South and south-west coast. Journal of Animal Ecology, 33, 179–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crisp, D.J., Southward, A.J. & Southward, E.C., 1981. On the distribution of the intertidal barnacles Chthamalus stellatus, Chthamalus montagui and Euraphia depressa. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 61, 359–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dando, P.R. & Southward, A.J., 1980. A new species of Chthamalus (Crustacea: Cirripedia) characterized by enzyme electrophoresis and shell morphology: with a revision of other species of Chthamalus from the western shores of the Atlantic Ocean. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 60, 787–831.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dando, P.R., Southward, A.J. & Crisp, D.J., 1979. Enzyme variation in Chthamalus stellatus and Chthamalus montagui (Crustacea: Cirripedia): evidence for the presence of C. montagui in the Adriatic. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 59, 307–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischer-Piette, E., 1933. Le contour géographique des cÔtes françhises et anglaises de la Manche, et la répartition de Mytilus edulis et Balanus perforatus. Comptes Rendus de la Société de Biogéographie, 86, 70–72.Google Scholar
Fischer-Piette, E., 1936. Études sur la biogéographie intercôtidale des deux rives de la Manche. Journal of the Linnean Society, Zoology, 40, 181–272.Google Scholar
Fischer-Piette, E. & Prenant, M., 1956. Distribution des Cirripédes intercÔtidaux d'espagne septentrionale. Bulletin du Centre d'Études et de Recherches Scientifiques. Biarritz, 1, 7–19.Google Scholar
Foster, B.A., 1970. Responses and acclimation to salinity in the adults of some balanomorph barnacles. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (B), 256, 377–400.Google Scholar
Gibbs, P.E. & Bryan, G. W., 1986. Reproductive failure in populations of the dog-whelk, Nucellalapillus, caused by imposex induced by tributyltin from antifouling paints. Journal of the Marine Bio-logical Association of the United Kingdom, 66, 767–777.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, J., Johnson, D., Lacis, A., Lebedeff, S., Lee, P., Rind, D. & Russell, G., 1981. Climatic impact of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide. Science, New York, 213, 957–966.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hui, E. & Moyse, J., 1987. Settlement patterns and competition for space. Crustacean Issues, 5, 363–376.Google Scholar
Lewis, J.R., 1964. The Ecology of Rocky Shores. London: English Universities Press.Google Scholar
Moore, H.B., 1936. The biology of Balanus balanoides. V. Distribution in the Plymouth area. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 20, 701–716.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, H.B. & Kitching, J.A., 1939. The biology of Chthamalus stellatus (Poli). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 23, 521–541.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, W. A. & Ross, A., 1976. Revision of the balanomorph barnacles; including a catalog of the species. Memoirs of the San Diego Society of Natural History, no. 9, 108 pp.Google Scholar
Southward, A.J., 1960. On changes of sea temperature in the English Channel. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 39, 449–458.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, A.J., 1967. Recent changes in abundance of intertidal barnacles in south-west England: a possible effect of climatic deterioration. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 47, 81–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, A.J., 1976. On the taxonomic status and distribution of Chthamahis stellatus (Cirripedia) in the north-east Atlantic region: with a key to the common intertidal barnacles of Britain. journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 56, 1007–1028.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, A.J. & Crisp, D.J., 1954. Recent changes in the distribution of the intertidal barnacles Chthamahis stellatus Poli and Balanus balanoides L. in the British Isles. Journal of Animal Ecology, 23, 163–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, A.J. & Crisp, D.J., 1956. Fluctuations in the distribution and abundance of intertidal barnacles. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 35, 211–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, A.J. & Southward, E.C., 1978. Recolonization of rocky shores in Cornwall after use of toxic dispersants to clean up the Torrey Canyon’ spill. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 35, 682–706.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, A.J. & Southward, E.C., 1988. Disappearance of the warm-water hermit crab Clibanarius erythropus from south-west Britain. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 68, 409–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, A.J., Butler, E.I. & Pennycuick, L., 1975. Recent cyclic changes in climate and in abundance of marine life. Nature, London, 253, 714–717.CrossRefGoogle Scholar