Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T20:03:16.141Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Racial Differences Between North American and European Forms of Balanus Balanoides

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

D. J. Crisp
Affiliation:
Marine Science Laboratories, Menai Bridge

Extract

After transplantation and acclimatization of populations of the barnacle Balanus balanoides from the coast of New England to the Menai Straits, differences in breeding behaviour persisted over a period of from 4 to 18 months. The two populations are believed to belong to distinct physiological races.

The New England populations fertilized 1½–3 weeks in advance of adjacent British populations.

Embryonic development in the post-cleavage stages of the New England population proceeded in vitro at about twice the rate of the development of the British population, under identical conditions.

The volume of the eggs of the New England population was 1.3–1.6 times as great as the volume of the eggs of the British specimens.

Both populations, when growing in British waters, liberated their nauplii in March at a time which coincided with the beginning of the vernal plankton increase in the locality. The embryos of the American population had therefore remained in the mantle space for a much longer period than had those of the British specimens and for a longer period than that reported for New England populations in their native habitat.

In B. balanoides the time of fertilization and rate of development may be genetically adapted in each general locality so that the embryos reach full term before the plankton increase is due. The actual time of liberation is then mediated by the hatching substance in response to prevailing food conditions.

If the B. balanoides population of the Western Atlantic area as a whole belongs to a physiological race distinct from that of the Eastern Atlantic, and responding differently to temperature levels at the breeding season, there is no reason to expect any close correlation in respect of environmental conditions between the southern limits of the species in Europe and in America.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1964

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Barnes, H., 1958. Regarding the southern limits of Balanus balanoides L. Oikos, Vol. 9, pp. 139–57.Google Scholar
Barnes, H., 1961. Balanus balanoides: recent observations on its southern limit. Ecology, Vol. 42, pp. 592–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, H. & Barnes, M., 1959a. The effect of temperature on the oxygen uptake and rate of development of the egg masses of two common cirripedes Balanus balanoides (L.) and Pollicipes polymerus J. B. Sowerby. Kieler Meeresforsch., Bd. 15, pp. 242–51.Google Scholar
Barnes, H. & Barnes, M., 1959 b. A comparison of the annual growth patterns of Balanus balanoides L. with particular reference to the effect of food and temperature. Oikos, Vol. 10, pp. 118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bigelow, H. B., 1926. Plankton of the offshore waters of the Gulf of Maine. U.S. Bur. Fish. (Part II), Vol. 40, 509 pp.Google Scholar
Crisp, D. J., 1954. The breeding of Balanus porcatus (da Costa) in the Irish Sea. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 33, pp. 473–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crisp, D. J., 1956. A substance promoting hatching and liberation of young cirripedes. Nature, Lond., Vol. 178, p. 263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crisp, D. J., 1957 Effect of low temperature on breeding of marine animals. Nature, Lond., Vol. 179, pp. 1138–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crisp, D. J., 1959a. The rate of development of B. balanoides (L.) embryos in vitro. J. Anim. Ecol., Vol. 28, pp. 119–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crisp, D., 1959b. Factors influencing the time of breeding of Balanus balanoides. Oikos, Vol. 10, pp. 275–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crisp, D., 1960. Factors influencing the growth rate of Balanus balanoides. J. Anim. Ecol., Vol. 29, pp. 95116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crisp, D., 1962. The planktonic stages of the Cirripedia Balanus balanoides (L.) and Balanus balanus (L.) from North temperate waters. Crustaceana, Vol. 3, pp. 207–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crisp, D. J. & Clegg, D. J., 1960. The induction of the breeding condition in Balanus balanoides (L.). Oikos, Vol. 11, pp. 265–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crisp, D. J. & Fischer-Piette, E., 1959. Répartition des principales espèces intercotidales de la côte Atlantique Francaise en 1954–55. Ann. Inst. océanogr. Monaco, Vol. 36, pp. 275387.Google Scholar
Crisp, D. J. & Spencer, C. P., 1958. The control of the hatching process in barnacles. Proc. roy. Soc. B, Vol. 148, pp. 275–99.Google Scholar
Darwin, C., 1854. A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia. Vol. II. The Balanidae, the Verrucidae. London: Ray Society.Google Scholar
Fischer-Piette, E. & Prenant, M., 1956. Distribution des cirripèdes intercotidaux d'Espagne septentrionale. Bull. Cent. Étud. Tech. sci. Biarritz, T. 1, pp. 719.Google Scholar
Fish, C. J., 1925. Seasonal distribution of the plankton of the Woods Hole region. Bull. U.S. Bur. Fish., Vol. 41, pp. 91179.Google Scholar
Hutchins, L. W., 1947. The bases for temperature zonation in geographical distribution. Ecol. Mon., Vol. 17, pp. 325–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lillick, L. C., 1937. Seasonal studies in the phytoplankton of Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Biol. Bull., Woods Hole, Vol. 73, pp. 488503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, H. B., 1934. The biology of Balanus balanoides. I. Growth rate and its relation to size, season and tidal level. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 19, pp. 851–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, H. B., 1935. The Biology of Balanus balanoides. III. The soft parts. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 20, pp. 263–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parr, A. E., 1933. A geographic ecological analysis of the seasonal changes in temperature conditions in shallow water along the Atlantic coast of the United States. Bull. Bingham oceanogr. Coll., Vol. 4, pp. 190.Google Scholar
Patel, B. & Crisp, D. J., 1960. The influence of temperature on the breeding and moulting activities of some warm-water species of operculate barnacles. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 39, pp. 667–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, H. W. & Gray, I. E., 1960. Summer upwelling off the north east coast of North Carolina. Limnol. Oceanogr., Vol. 5, pp. 108–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, H. W., Wells, M. J. & Gray, I. E., 1960. On the southern limits of Balanus balanoides (L.) in the Western Atlantic. Ecology, Vol. 41, pp. 578–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar