Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T19:03:51.188Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Some Aspects of the Population Dynamics of Asterina Gibbosa (Asteroidea)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

R. G. Crump  and
R. H. Emson
R. G. Crump
Affiliation:
Orielton Field Centre, Pembroke, Dyfed
R. H. Emson
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, King's College, Strand, London WCR LS
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Very few field studies of the population dynamics of starfish have been undertaken; such work depends upon being able to age individuals and identify age classes in the field. Information regarding growth rates in asteroids is notoriously difficult to obtain, due primarily to the absence of any method of assessing age, except where clear and obvious recruitment and regular growth provide size/age relationships. Numerous investigations of skeletal structures in asteroids by Smith (1940), Feder (1956), Hatanaka & Kosaka (1959) and Crump (1971) have failed to reveal any trace of growth lines similar to those found by Moore (1935), Jensen (1969) and Ebert (1970) in echinoids. In forcipulate asteroids, it is well established that growth depends primarily on temperature (Vevers, 1949; Hancock, 1958) and the availability of suitable food supplies (Mead, 1900; Galtsoff & Loosanoff, 1939; Smith, 1940; Vevers, 1949; Feder, 1956, 1970; Hancock, 1958). The food availability factor acts in such a way that it is impossible to tell the age of an adult starfish from its size; for example, in the spinulosan asteroid Patiriella regularts (Verrill), Crump (1969) found that specimens kept without food for 44 weeks lost 33 % of the original body weight, whilst P. regularts which had been fed on freshly killed crabs, showed a mean net increase of 629% of the original net weight over the same period.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 58 , Issue 2 , May 1978 , pp. 451 - 466
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1978

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

Agassiz, A. 1877. North American starfishes. Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard College, 5 (1), iv, 136 pp., 20 pis.Google Scholar
Araki, G. S. 1964. Physiology of Feeding and Digestion in the Sea Star, Patiria miniata. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Stanford University.Google Scholar
Bacci, G. 1951. On two sexual races of Asterina gibbosa (Penn). Experientia, 7, 31–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ballantine, W. J. 1961. A biologically defined exposure scale for the comparative description of rocky shores. Field Studies, 1, 1–19.Google Scholar
Bougis, P. 1951. Note préliminaire sur la croissance d'Asterina gibbosa (Pennant). Vie et milieu, 2, 262–266.Google Scholar
Bruslé, J. 1969. Les cycles génitaux d'Asterina gibbosa. Cahiers de biologie marine, 10, 271–87.Google Scholar
Cassie, R. M. 1954. Some uses of probability paper in the analysis of size frequency distributions. Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 5, 513–522.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crump, R. G. 1969. Feeding Growth and Reproduction in the Asteroids Patiriella regularis (Verrill, 1867) and Coscinasterias calamaria (Gray, 1840). Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Otago University, New Zealand.Google Scholar
Crump, R. G. 1971. Annual reproductive cycles in three geographically separated populations of Patiriella regularis (Verrill), a common New Zealand asteroid, Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 7, 137–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delavault, R. 1961. La croissance d'Asterina gibbosa élevée en captivité. Bulletin du Laboratoire maritime de Dinard, 47, 3–7.Google Scholar
Ebert, T. A. 1970. Growth and mortality in post larval echinoids. American Zoologist, 15, 155–175.Google Scholar
Ebert, T. A. 1973. Estimating growth and mortality rates from size data. Oecologia, 11, 281–298.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Emson, R. H. & Crump, R. G. 1978. Brooding in Asterina gibbosa (Pennant). Thalassiajugoslavica, 12. (In the Press.)Google Scholar
Feder, H. M. 1956. Natural History Studies on the Starfish Pisaster ochraceus (Brandt, 1835) in the Monterey Bay area. Doctoral Dissertation. Stanford University.Google Scholar
Feder, H. M. 1970. Growth and predation by the ochre sea star, Pisaster ochraceus (Brandt) in Monterey Bay, California. Ophelia, 8, 161–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galtsoff, P. S. & Loosanoff, V. L. 1939. Natural history and method of controlling the starfish (Asterias forbesi). Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries, Washington, 49, 73–132.Google Scholar
Grieg, J. A. 1919. Remarks on the age of some Arctic and North Atlantic starfishes. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 3, 400–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hancock, D. A. 1958. Notes on starfish on an Essex oyster bed. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 37, 565–589.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harding, J. P. 1949. The use of probability paper for the graphical analysis of polymodal frequency distributions. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 28, 141–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hatanaka, M. & Kosaka, M. 1959. Biological studies on the population of the starfish, Asterias amurensis, in Sendai Bay. Tohoku Journal of Agricultural Research, 4, 159–178.Google Scholar
Hauenschild, C. 1954. Zur Frage der Geschlechtsbestimmung bei Asterina gibbosa. Zoologische Jahrbücher (Abteilung, 3. Allgemeine Zoologie und Physiologie der Tiere), 65, 43–53.Google Scholar
Jensen, M. 1969. Age determination in echinoids. Sarsia, 37, 41–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mead, A. D. 1900. On the correlation between growth and food supply in starfish. American Naturalist, 34, 17–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, H. B. 1934. A comparison of the biology of Echinus esculentus in different habitats. Part 2. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 20, 109–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mortensen, T. 1927. Echinoderms of the British Isles. 471 pp. Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pye, A. F. 1970. The Functional Anatomy of the Gut of the Sea Star Asterina gibbosa (Pennant). Ph.D. Thesis, University of London.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, B. N. 1965. On taxonomy and biology of the North Atlantic species of the asteroid genus Henricia (Gray). Meddelelser fra Danmarks Fiskeri-og Havundersøgelser, 4, 157–213.Google Scholar
Smith, G. 1940. Factors limiting distribution and size of the starfish. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 5, 84–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vasserot, J. 1961. Caractère hautement spécializé du régime alimentaire chez les Asterides Echinaster sepositus et Henricia sanguinolenta prédateurs de spongiares. Bulletin de la Société zoologique de France, 86, 796–809.Google Scholar
Vevers, H. G. 1949. The biology of Asterias rubens, L.: growth and reproduction. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 28, 165–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar