Life-history trait of the Mediterranean keystone species Patella rustica: growth and microbial bioerosion

Abstract

The age and shell growth patterns in populations of Patella rustica in the Adriatic Sea were determined by analyzing the inner growth lines visible in shell sections. Marginal increment analysis showed annual periodicity with the annual growth line being deposited in May. The growth analysis of 120 individual shells showed that 90.8 % of collected shells were less than 4 years of age and only two shells (1.6 %) were older than 6 years. Population structure was described and generalized von Bertalanffy growth parameters were calculated: asymptotic length (L ∞ ) was 38.22 mm and the growth constant (K) was 0.30 year -1 . Growth performance index value of P. rustica (Ø') was 2.64, among the lowest ranges reported for limpet species. Patella rustica shells were degraded to different degrees by microbial bioerosion. The damage was most often restricted to the oldest parts of the shell, i.e. apex of the shell, posing difficulties in determining the exact position of the first growth line. The microboring organisms identified were pseudofilamentous and filamentous cyanobacteria Hormathonema (Solentia) paulocellulare, Hyella caespitosa, Mastigocoleus testarum and Leptolyngbya sp. The overall intensity of infestation was relatively low, but increased in severity with shell age and length. The present study is first to introduce the use of inner growth lines in Patella rustica shell sections as a reliable method for age determination. It provides the first insight into the growth patterns of this keystone species, while taking the interference by microbial shell bioerosion in consideration.

Growth and reproduction of the north-eastern Atlantic keystone species Patella aspera (Mollusca: Patellogastropoda)

“…The nonlinearity of growth of marine organisms prevents direct comparison of the growth parameters [52], as such determination and comparison of the overall performance of different marine species growth is performed using the growth performance index of Pauly and Munro [26] which relates the asymptotic length and growth rate. This index is considered to be species-specific and to represent the physiological capacity of the organism with genetically predetermined factors [13]. For P. aspera the calculated growth performance index was 3.40 similar to P. candei (3.32) from the Madeira archipelago [17] and Patella ferruginea Gmelin, 1791 (3.30) from North Africa [53].…”

“…However, the knowledge concerning life-history, age structure and growth patterns for these species is still limited [13]. Most information available on the biology of Patella species is focused on Patella vulgata Linnaeus, 1758.…”

The exploitation of limpets in a Mediterranean Marine Protected Area: assessing the effectiveness of protection in the intertidal zone

“…Prusina et al (2015) compared the growth of P. rustica in the Adriatic Sea with that of other limpet species taken from the literature. The authors detected a growth performance index value (Ø = logK + 2logL∞) of 2.6, that was among the lowest reported for limpets in the literature (Prusina et al, 2015, table 2) and an L∞ = 38.2 mm.…”

Population Characteristics of the Limpet Patella caerulea (Linnaeus, 1758) in Eastern Mediterranean (Central Greece)

“…Limpets of the genus Patella are grazing gastropods, common inhabitants of the hard substrate communities in the midlittoral and upper infralittoral zones of the East Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts in temperate latitudes [1,2]. They play an important role in controlling algal coverage and consequently, the ecological succession and biological communities established in coastal zones [3][4][5][6][7]. They are considered the "keystone" species of the midlittoral zone [8][9][10][11][12] and are widely collected for human consumption and as fishing bait.…”

“…Although a number of studies have been carried out on the biology, distribution, and ecology of Patella species in the Mediterranean Sea [7,14,15,25,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36], little is known on the occurrence and population characteristics of P. caerulea in eastern Mediterranean, apart from fragmented information (morphometry, distribution, ecology, reproduction) occasionally collected in the framework of several ecological studies [26,[37][38][39][40][41].…”