Cargando…

Unimodal relationship between small-scale barnacle recruitment and the density of pre-existing barnacle adults

Recruitment is a key demographic process for population persistence. This paper focuses on barnacle (Semibalanus balanoides) recruitment. In rocky intertidal habitats from the Gulf of St. Lawrence coast of Nova Scotia (Canada), ice scour is common during the winter. At the onset of intertidal barnac...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Scrosati, Ricardo A., Ellrich, Julius A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5463980/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28603678
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3444
_version_ 1783242751897239552
author Scrosati, Ricardo A.
Ellrich, Julius A.
author_facet Scrosati, Ricardo A.
Ellrich, Julius A.
author_sort Scrosati, Ricardo A.
collection PubMed
description Recruitment is a key demographic process for population persistence. This paper focuses on barnacle (Semibalanus balanoides) recruitment. In rocky intertidal habitats from the Gulf of St. Lawrence coast of Nova Scotia (Canada), ice scour is common during the winter. At the onset of intertidal barnacle recruitment in early May (after sea ice has fully melted), mostly only adult barnacles and bare substrate are visible at high elevations in wave-exposed habitats. We conducted a multiannual study to investigate if small-scale barnacle recruitment could be predicted from the density of pre-existing adult barnacles. In a year that exhibited a wide adult density range (ca. 0–130 individuals dm(−2)), the relationship between adult density and recruit density (scaled to the available area for recruitment, which excluded adult barnacles) was unimodal. In years that exhibited a lower adult density range (ca. 0–40/50 individuals dm(−2)), the relationship between adult and recruit density was positive and resembled the lower half of the unimodal relationship. Overall, adult barnacle density was able to explain 26–40% of the observed variation in recruit density. The unimodal adult–recruit relationship is consistent with previously documented intraspecific interactions. Between low and intermediate adult densities, the positive nature of the relationship relates to the previously documented fact that settlement-seeking larvae are chemically and visually attracted to adults, which might be important for local population persistence. Between intermediate and high adult densities, where population persistence may be less compromised and the abundant adults may limit recruit growth and survival, the negative nature of the relationship suggests that adult barnacles at increasingly high densities stimulate larvae to settle elsewhere. The unimodal pattern may be especially common on shores with moderate rates of larval supply to the shore, because high rates of larval supply may swamp the coast with settlers, decoupling recruit density from local adult abundance.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5463980
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2017
publisher PeerJ Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-54639802017-06-09 Unimodal relationship between small-scale barnacle recruitment and the density of pre-existing barnacle adults Scrosati, Ricardo A. Ellrich, Julius A. PeerJ Animal Behavior Recruitment is a key demographic process for population persistence. This paper focuses on barnacle (Semibalanus balanoides) recruitment. In rocky intertidal habitats from the Gulf of St. Lawrence coast of Nova Scotia (Canada), ice scour is common during the winter. At the onset of intertidal barnacle recruitment in early May (after sea ice has fully melted), mostly only adult barnacles and bare substrate are visible at high elevations in wave-exposed habitats. We conducted a multiannual study to investigate if small-scale barnacle recruitment could be predicted from the density of pre-existing adult barnacles. In a year that exhibited a wide adult density range (ca. 0–130 individuals dm(−2)), the relationship between adult density and recruit density (scaled to the available area for recruitment, which excluded adult barnacles) was unimodal. In years that exhibited a lower adult density range (ca. 0–40/50 individuals dm(−2)), the relationship between adult and recruit density was positive and resembled the lower half of the unimodal relationship. Overall, adult barnacle density was able to explain 26–40% of the observed variation in recruit density. The unimodal adult–recruit relationship is consistent with previously documented intraspecific interactions. Between low and intermediate adult densities, the positive nature of the relationship relates to the previously documented fact that settlement-seeking larvae are chemically and visually attracted to adults, which might be important for local population persistence. Between intermediate and high adult densities, where population persistence may be less compromised and the abundant adults may limit recruit growth and survival, the negative nature of the relationship suggests that adult barnacles at increasingly high densities stimulate larvae to settle elsewhere. The unimodal pattern may be especially common on shores with moderate rates of larval supply to the shore, because high rates of larval supply may swamp the coast with settlers, decoupling recruit density from local adult abundance. PeerJ Inc. 2017-06-06 /pmc/articles/PMC5463980/ /pubmed/28603678 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3444 Text en ©2017 Scrosati and Ellrich http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Animal Behavior
Scrosati, Ricardo A.
Ellrich, Julius A.
Unimodal relationship between small-scale barnacle recruitment and the density of pre-existing barnacle adults
title Unimodal relationship between small-scale barnacle recruitment and the density of pre-existing barnacle adults
title_full Unimodal relationship between small-scale barnacle recruitment and the density of pre-existing barnacle adults
title_fullStr Unimodal relationship between small-scale barnacle recruitment and the density of pre-existing barnacle adults
title_full_unstemmed Unimodal relationship between small-scale barnacle recruitment and the density of pre-existing barnacle adults
title_short Unimodal relationship between small-scale barnacle recruitment and the density of pre-existing barnacle adults
title_sort unimodal relationship between small-scale barnacle recruitment and the density of pre-existing barnacle adults
topic Animal Behavior
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5463980/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28603678
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3444
work_keys_str_mv AT scrosatiricardoa unimodalrelationshipbetweensmallscalebarnaclerecruitmentandthedensityofpreexistingbarnacleadults
AT ellrichjuliusa unimodalrelationshipbetweensmallscalebarnaclerecruitmentandthedensityofpreexistingbarnacleadults