Life strategies of Viviparidae (Gastropoda: Caenogastropoda: Architaenioglossa) in various aquatic habitats: <i>Viviparus viviparus</i> (Linnaeus, 1758) and <i>V. contectus</i> (Millet, 1813)

Abstract

Viviparidae display two categories of life history traits-one constant and independent of habitat, another depending on ecological conditions. The relatively constant abundance is ensured by clustering in the same places at the same time, sex ratio (prevalence of females), size structure (presence of all size classes, with the largest snails forming the majority), and the high proportion of gravid females in the population. These traits undergo only seasonal variation in particular habitats. Adjustment to environmental changes involves the number of embryos per female and the size of reproducing females. Long-term life history studies were performed on Viviparus viviparus (L.) and V. contectus (Mill.) from various habitats (dam reservoir, river, oxbows connected to the river to varied extent) in Poland. The habitats differed in their surface area, depth and trophic status. The snails from the dam reservoir, ecotone zones in the river and stagnant oxbow lakes reproduced at a large body size, their fecundity being size-dependent. In very variable habitats, like oxbow lakes periodically joined to the river, viviparids reproduced at a younger age and smaller body size, while their fecundity did not increase with the body size. The reproduction was the most important factor determining the viviparid density in the studied habitats. This was mainly associated with the ovoviviparity which allowed for controlling the reproduction process. Reproduction is a flexible life history trait in the populations of V. viviparus and V. contectus.

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“…Some studies (Leung, Grist, Morley, Morritt, & Crane, 2001;Yap & Ed ward, 2010) showed that gastropods which accumu lated relatively higher concentrations of heavy metals have lower growth rates and consequently lower values of allo metric parameters such as shell height and width. In this regard it is worth noting that the growth rates of freshwater gastropods depends on many environmental parameters such as temperature, oxygen availability and their interactions, but also on biotic interactions such as predation and competition (Jakubik, 2012;Jakubik, Koperski, & Lewandowski, 2014). In general we found that population fro m lacustrine environ ment (Skadar Lake) have larger dimensions of all allo metric parameters (Table 5) than specimens from riverine environ ment; the specimens fro m outlet stretches (stream pool) of Matica river are larger than specimens fro m lotic habitat of Zeta river.…”

Life on the edge: survival and behavioural responses of freshwater gill‐breathing snails to declining water level and substratum drying

“…We assessed the behavioural responses and survival of three species: Viviparus viviparus (L.), Bithynia tentaculata (L.) and Potamopyrgus antipodarum (Gray) to drying of a sandy substratum. These species are ubiquitous in Europe and commonly occur in the near‐shore zone of rivers, streams, reservoirs and lakes (Piechocki, ), where they occupy multiple substratum types, including sand (Piechocki, ; Lodge, ; Jurkiewicz‐Karnkowska, ; Jakubik, ). We hypothesised that these snails would have some adaptations to air exposure, such as burrowing into substratum and horizontal migrations.…”

Mollusc communities of lowland rivers and oxbow lakes in agricultural areas with anthropogenically elevated nutrient concentration

“…The organic matter content may vary depending on the hydrological connectivity of oxbow lakes with the main river channel, for example from 0.23% to 3.97% (from low to medium organic matter content) in oxbow lakes connected with the main river channel or from 0.07% to 31.39% (from low to very high organic matter content) in the lentic oxbow lakes of the Bug River (JaKubIK et al 2006, JaKubIK 2012.…”