Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T06:18:12.977Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Factors affecting climbing in the coastal gastropod Hydrobia ulvae

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

R. S. K. Barnes
R. S. K. Barnes
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In a series of laboratory experiments designed to create conditions under which the dispersal and feeding hypotheses of climbing in Hydrobia ulvae would predict opposing results, significantly larger numbers of snails climbed (a) food-bearing sticks than non-food-bearing sticks, (b) in 100% sea water than in 41% sea water, and (c) in the dark than in the light. The first two of these results are in accordance with the hypothesis that climbing is not a distinct behavioural activity but is merely normal crawling/browsing behaviour carried out in a vertical plane; they are in disagreement with the hypothesis that climbing is undertaken in order to facilitate dispersal away from unfavourable conditions. The third result is neutral in respect of the two hypotheses, but is explicable in terms that activity during the night is advantageous because of lowered rates of vertebrate predation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 61 , Issue 2 , May 1981 , pp. 301 - 306
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1981

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

Anderson, A., 1971. Intertidal activity, breeding and the floating habit of Hydrobia ulvae in the Ythan Estuary. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 51, 423–437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, R. S. K., 1981. An experimental study of the pattern and significance of the climbing behaviour of Hydrobia ulvae. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 61, 285–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, P. R., 1979. Adaptations shown by foraging shorebirds to cyclical variations in the activity and availability of their intertidal invertebrate prey. In Cyclic Phenomena in Marine Plants and Animals. Proceedings of the 13th European Marine Biology Symposium, Isle of Man, 1978 (ed. Naylor, E. and Hartnoll, R. G.), pp. 357–366. Pergamon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fenchel, T., 1975. Factors determining the distribution patterns of mud snails (Hydrobiidae). Oecologia, 20, 1–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goss-Custard, J. D., 1969. The winter feeding ecology of the redshank Tringa totanus. Ibis, 111, 338–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hylleberg, J., 1975. The effect of salinity and temperature on egestion in mud snails (Gastropoda: Hydrobiidae). A study in niche overlap. Oecologia, 21, 279–289.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jeffrey, D. W. (ed.), 1977. North Bull Island, Dublin Bay – A Modern Coastal Natural History. Dublin: Royal Dublin Society.Google Scholar
Muus, B. J., 1967. The fauna of Danish estuaries and lagoons. Distribution and ecology of dominating species in the shallow reaches of the mesohaline zone. Meddelelser fra Danmarks Fiskeri- og Havundersogelser, 5, 3–316.Google Scholar
Newell, R. C., 1964. Some factors controlling the upstream distribution of Hydrobia ulvae (Pennant). Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 142, 85–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Underwood, A. J., 1979. The ecology of intertidal gastropods. Advances in Marine Biology, 16, 111–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar