Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T17:31:29.876Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ecology and demography of a population of Anseropoda placenta (Echinodermata: Asteroidea) in the Bay of Brest, Brittany

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

M. Guillou  and
M. Diop
M. Guillou
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d'Océanographie Biologique, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Faculté des Sciences, 29287 Brest Cedex, France
M. Diop
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d'Océanographie Biologique, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Faculté des Sciences, 29287 Brest Cedex, France
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The starfish Anseropoda placenta (Pennant) is abundant in the gravelly sands of the Bay of Brest (Finistere, France). The size, distribution and density of this animal were evaluated along a transect perpendicular to the River Aulne in the southern part of the Bay. The spawning phases, the recruitment and growth processes were defined. When the entire population was considered, three plurimodal year classes were visible from the length frequency histograms. Year-class segregations were observed. Their density varied in space and time in a manner which suggests a pattern of migration from the southern part of the transect towards the northern part. Juveniles were recruited mainly during the autumn on the gravelly bottom of the southern shallow part. By late winter, they had migrated to the deeper parts of the channel. Feeding preferences do not seem to be the main factor controlling these migrations which are discussed in relation to environmental factors and the intra- and inter-specific competition.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 68 , Issue 1 , February 1988 , pp. 41 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1988

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

Batthacharya, C. G., 1967. A simple method of resolution of a distribution into gaussian components. Biometrics, 23, 115–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauer, V., 1915. Biologisches über den Seestern Palmipes membranaceus. Internationale Revue der gesamten Hydrologie und Hydrographie, 7, 139–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carvajal, d'Orlemont F. M., 1986. Contribution à l'Etude de la Production Phytoplanctonique dans le Bassin Nord de la Rade de Brest en Période Printanière de l'Année 1986. Rapport de Diplome d'Etudes Approfondies, Faculté des Sciences de Brest, Océanographie Biologique.Google Scholar
Cognetti, G. & Delavault, R., 1962. La sexualité des Astérides. Cahiers de biologie marine, 3, 157–182.Google Scholar
Gros, P. & Cochard, J. C., 1978. Biologie de Nyctiphanes couchii (Crustacea, Euphausiacea) dans le secteur nord du Golfe de Gascogne. Annales de l'Institut océanographique, 54, 25–16.Google Scholar
Guillou, M., 1987. Etude du régime alimentaire d'Anseropoda placenta (Asteroidea: Echinodermata) en Rade de Brest (Finistère, France). Bulletin de la Société de sciences naturelles de l'ouest de la France, in press.Google Scholar
Hasselblad, V., 1966. Estimation of parameters for a mixture of normal distributions. Technometrics, 8, 431–446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, O. D., 1925. The food of the bottom fauna of the Plymouth fishing grounds. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 13, 560–599.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koelher, R., 1924. Les Echinodermes des Mers d'Europe. Paris: Gaston Doin.Google Scholar
Menge, B. A., 1975. Brood or broadcast? The adaptive significance of different reproductive strategies in the two intertidal sea-stars Leptasterias hexactis and Pisaster ochraceus. Marine Biology, 31, 87–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mortensen, T., 1927. Handbook of the Echinoderms of the British Isles. London: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reese, E. S., 1966. The complex behaviour of echinoderms. In Physiology of Echinodermata (ed. Boolootian, R. A.), pp. 157–218. New York: Interscience Publishers.Google Scholar
Sloan, N. A. & Aldridge, T. M., 1981. Observations on an aggregation of the starfish Asterias rubens L. in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire, England. Journal of Natural History, 15, 407–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tortonese, E., 1965. Echinodermata. Fauna d'Italia, 6, 419 pp.Google Scholar
Vasserot, J., 1961. Caractère hautement spécialisé du régime alimentaire chez les Astéridés Echinaster sepositus et Henricia sanguinolenta, prédateurs de spongiaires. Bulletin de la Société zoologique de France, 86, 796–809.Google Scholar
Warner, G. F., 1971. On the ecology of a dense bed of the brittle-star Ophiothrix fragilis. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 51, 267–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warner, G. F., 1979. Aggregation in echinoderms. In Biology and Systematics of Colonial Organisms, vol. 11 (ed. Larwood, G. and Rosen, B. R.), pp. 375–396. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar