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Long-term changes in the geographic distribution and population structures of Osilinus lineatus (Gastropoda: Trochidae) in Britain and Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2007

N. Mieszkowska
Affiliation:
Marine Biological Association of the UK, The Laboratory, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, PL1 2PB, UK Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA
S.J. Hawkins
Affiliation:
Marine Biological Association of the UK, The Laboratory, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, PL1 2PB, UK School of Biological Sciences, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, UK
M.T. Burrows
Affiliation:
Scottish Association of Marine Science, Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory, Oban, PA37 1QA, UK
M.A. Kendall
Affiliation:
Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, West Hoe, Plymouth, PL1 3DH, UK
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Abstract

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Since the rate of global climate change began to accelerate in the 1980s, the coastal seas of Britain have warmed by up to 1°C. Locations close to the northern range edges of a southern trochid gastropod Osilinus lineatus in Britain previously surveyed in the 1950s and 1980s were resurveyed during 2002–2004 to determine whether changes in the success of near-limit populations had occurred during the period of climate warming. Between the 1980s and the 2000s, the range limits had extended by up to 55 km. Populations sampled over a latitudinal extent of 4 degrees from northern limits towards the centre of the range showed synchronous increases in abundance throughout the years sampled, suggesting a large-scale factor such as climate was driving the observed changes. These increases in abundance and changes in range limits are likely to have occurred via increased recruitment success in recent years.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2007 Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom