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Upwelling affects food availability, impacting the morphological and molecular conditions of the herviborous limpet Fissurella crassa (Mollusca: Archeogastropoda)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2012

José Pulgar ,
Marcela Aldana ,
Marco Alvarez ,
Roberto Garcia-Huidobro ,
Pilar Molina ,
Juan Pablo Morales  and
Víctor Manuel Pulgar
José Pulgar*
Affiliation:
Universidad Andres Bello, Departamento de Ecología & Biodiversidad, República 470, Santiago, Chile
Marcela Aldana
Affiliation:
Universidad Central de Chile, Escuela de Pedagogía en Biología y Ciencias, Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación, Santa Isabel 1278, Santiago, Chile
Marco Alvarez
Affiliation:
Universidad Andres Bello, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, República 217, Santiago, Chile
Roberto Garcia-Huidobro
Affiliation:
Universidad Andres Bello, Departamento de Ecología & Biodiversidad, República 470, Santiago, Chile
Pilar Molina
Affiliation:
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Alameda 340, Santiago, Chile
Juan Pablo Morales
Affiliation:
Universidad Andres Bello, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, República 217, Santiago, Chile
Víctor Manuel Pulgar
Affiliation:
Center for Research in Obstetrics & Gynecology, Wake Forest School of Medicine and Biomedical Research Infrastructure Center, Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem NC, USA
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: J. Pulgar, Departamento de Ecología & Biodiversidad, Universidad Andres Bello, Avenida República 470, Santiago, Chile email: jpulgar@unab.cl
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Abstract

Oceanographical processes, such as upwelling, induce variations in nutrient availability in marine ecosystems, and evidence indicates that nutrient input can strongly influence the physiological activities, structure, and dynamics of marine communities. Intertidal organisms have long been considered ideal study units in which to quantify the relationship of physical variations and differential energy allocations in specimens that undergo environmental variations, such as observed with nutrient availability. In habitats with differential nutrient input (upwelling versus non-upwelling), both food availability (algae abundance) and seasonal gonadal and foot weight variations were determined in the keyhole limpet Fissurella crassa. Gonadal weight is used as a measure of reproduction allocation whereas foot weight is an indirect indicator of energy allocation towards survival. RNA:DNA ratio in limpets was used as an indicator of biosynthetic capability. Our results indicate that, in general, algae abundance, muscular foot weight, and gonadal weight were higher in upwelling sites during all seasons studied. The same result was found for RNA:DNA ratios. Energetic allocation in animals that inhabit intertidal upwelling habitats supported a constant allocation towards reproduction and soft tissues. In contrast, animals that inhabit non-upwelling habitats showed important energetic restrictions associated with higher water temperature and lower food availability. Our results clearly show that in the keyhole limpet F. crassa food availability is a more important determinant of an individual's condition than a physical variation such as environment temperature.

Keywords

RNA:DNA ratiolife historiesfood availabilitykeyhole limpetupwelling
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 93 , Issue 3 , May 2013 , pp. 797 - 802
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2012

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