BIOLOGIYA MORYA, 2014, Vol. 40, No. 4, pp. 302-308 |
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Mechanisms used by inhabitants of a sand flat in the White Sea to colonize aggregates of Mytilus edulis Linnaeus, 1758 (Bivalvia: Mytilidae) 1Saint Petersburg State University, Faculty of Biology and Soil Science, Saint Petersburg 199034; E-mail: The colonization of artificially created aggregates of the mussel Mytilus edulis by organisms inhabiting an intertidal sand and mud flat was studied in a field experiment. The surface of 40 experimental plots was cleared of macrofauna. Thirty of these plots were covered with fishing nets, on which either live mussels (10 plots, type M) or mussel dummies (10 plots, type D) were placed; on 10 plots, the nets were left empty (type Z). The remaining 10 plots without nets but with cleared surface (type E) were the control. For comparison, samples were taken from the ambient intact community. After 16 days of exposure, the community on the plots differed from the ambient one. In the E-Z-D-M series, only 7 out of 29 taxa, found in the samples, differed significantly in abundance. Chironomid larvae, adults and spat of M. edulis and Mya arenaria were most abundant on the plots with hard substrate (Z, D, M). Adult Jaera sp., Oligochaeta, Littorina saxatilis, and Nemertea were more abundant on the type M plots. The abundance of spat of Macoma balthica and Hydrobia ulvae did not differ significantly. The results indicate that the biological activity of mussels M. edulis in dense assemblages facilitated the immigration of adult animals of other species. The M. edulis aggregates either had no influence on the spat of mollusks or they attracted it as a hard substrate for settlement. Key words: Mytilus edulis, community formation, experiment, intertidal zone, White Sea. |
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