Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T21:33:53.207Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The ecology of sublittoral communities at Abereiddy Quarry, Pembrokeshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

K. Hiscock
Affiliation:
Department of Marine Biology, University College of North Wales, Menai Bridge, Gwynedd LL59 5EH
R. Hoare
Affiliation:
Department of Marine Biology, University College of North Wales, Menai Bridge, Gwynedd LL59 5EH

Extract

Abereiddy Quarry is shown in Plate I. It lies at 51° 56′N, 5°13′W (Ordnance Survey Reference SM 795315), 6 km northeast of St Davids in Pembrokeshire (Text fig. 1). The quarry, a disused slate working, is surrounded by high cliffs except to the west where there is a channel open to the sea. In 1902–3, operations ceased and the quarry began to fill with fresh water and sea spray. During 1932–3 the west wall was breached to allow access to the sea so that the basin could be used as a harbour. Abereiddy is now a deep, fully saline marine basin which, at low water, is 66 m across from north to south with a surface area of 0.356 ha and a maximum depth of 24 m. In this situation it has been possible to observe sublittoral rocky sea-bed communities in an extremely sheltered area through a summer thermocline and associated oxycline. Abereiddy Quarry has previously been investigated by Bailey, Nelson-Smith & Knight-Jones (1967), who published details of the vertical distribution of Spirorbis spp. The biology of serpulid worms in Abereiddy Quarry has been the subject of continuing investigations carried out from University College Swansea (E. W. Knight-Jones, personal communication).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1975

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

Admiralty, , 1943. Irish Sea pocket tidal streams atlas. 16 pp. London: Hydrographer of the Navy.Google Scholar
Admiralty, , 1972. Admiralty tide tables 1973. Vol. 1, European waters. 406 pp. Taunton: Hydrographer of the Navy.Google Scholar
Angel, M. V. 1968. The thermocline as an ecological boundary. Sarsia, 34, 299312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arndt, W., 1935. Porifera. Tierwelt der Nord- und Ostsee, 27, (3 a1), 1140.Google Scholar
Bailey, J. H., Nelson-Smith, A. & Knight-Jones, E. W., 1967. Some methods for transects across steep rocks and channels. Underwater Association Report for 1966–1967, 107–11.Google Scholar
Bassindale, R., 1964. British barnacles. Synopses of the British Fauna, No. 14. 68 pp. London: Linnean Society.Google Scholar
Bellan, G., 1967. Pollution et peuplements benthiques sur substrat meuble dans le région de Marseille. Deuxième partie. L'ensemble Portuaire Marseillais. Revue Internationale d'Océanographie Médicale, 8, 5195.Google Scholar
Blaber, S. J. M., Hill, B. J. & Forbes, A. T., 1974. Infratidal zonation in a deep South African estuary. Marine Biology, 28, 333–7.Google Scholar
Bruce, J. R., Colman, J. S. & Jones, N. S., 1963. Marine fauna of the Isle of Man. ix, 307 pp. Liverpool: University Press.Google Scholar
Burton, M. 1930. Additions to the sponge fauna at Plymouth. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 16, 489507.Google Scholar
Chevreux, F. & Fage, L., 1925. Amphipodes. Faune de France, 9, 1488.Google Scholar
Clark, R. B., 1960, The fauna of the Clyde Sea area. Polychaeta. 71 pp. Millport: Scottish Marine Biological Association.Google Scholar
Cooper, L. H. N., 1961. The oceanography of the Celtic Sea. I. Wind drift. II. Conditions in the spring of 1950. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 41, 227–70.Google Scholar
Conseil Permanent International Pour L'Exploration De La Mer; Service Hydrographique, 1962. Mean monthly temperature and salinity of the surface layer of the North Sea and adjacent waters from 1905 to 1954. 316 pp. Charlottenlund Slot: C.P.I.E.M.Google Scholar
Cox, A. H., 1915. The geology of the district beteen Abereiddy and Abercastle. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 71, 273342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crisp, D. J., 1955. The behaviour of barnacle cyprids in relation to water movement over a surface. Journal of Experimental Biology, 32, 569–90.Google Scholar
Crothers, J. H., 1966. Dale Fort Marine Fauna. Field Studies, 2 (supplement), i–xxiv, 1169.Google Scholar
Drake, D. E., 1971. Suspended sediment and thermal stratification in Santa Barbara Channel, California. Deep Sea Research, 18, 763–70.Google Scholar
Ebling, F. J., Kitching, J. A., Purchon, R. A. & Bassindale, R. 1948. The ecology of the Lough Ine Rapids with special reference to water currents. II. The fauna of the Saccorhiza canopy. Journal of Animal Ecology, 17, 223–44.Google Scholar
Eggleston, D., 1968. Notes on entoproct biology. Sarsia, 36, 41–4.Google Scholar
Eggleston, D. & Bull, H. O., 1966, The marine fauna of the Cullercoats district. Entoprocta. Report of the Dove Marine Laboratory, Cullercoats, Northumberland, Third Series, 15, 710.Google Scholar
Fauvel, P., 1923. Polychètes errantes. Faune de France, 5, 1488.Google Scholar
Fauvel, P., 1927. Polychètes sédentaires. Faune de France, 16, 1494.Google Scholar
Fenchel, T., 1969. The ecology of marine microbenthos. IV. Structure and function of the benthic ecosystem, its chemical and physical factors and the microfauna communities with special reference to ciliated Protozoa. Ophelia, 6, 1182.Google Scholar
Fenchel, T. M. & Riedl, R. J., 1970. The sulfide system: a new biotic community underneath the oxidised layer of marine sand bottoms. Marine Biology, 7, 255–68.Google Scholar
George, J. D.The marine fauna of Lundy. Polychaeta. Report Lundy Field Society, 25. (In the Press.)Google Scholar
Gray, J. S., 1971. Factors controlling population localizations in polychaete worms. Vie et milieu, 22 (supplement), 707–22.Google Scholar
Gulliksen, B., 1973. The vertical distribution and habitat of the ascidians in Borgenfjorden, North Trondelag, Norway. Sarsia, 52, 21–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, J. 1968. The movements of sea-bed and sea-surface drifters in the Irish Sea, 1965–1967. Sarsia, 34, 227–42.Google Scholar
Heathershaw, D. C., 1972. Light attenuation in the Irish Sea and Loch Fyne. M.Sc. Thesis, University of Wales.Google Scholar
Hiscock, K. & Howlett, R. The ecology of Caryophyllia smithi Stokes and Broderip on south-western coasts of the British Isles. In: Underwater research, ed. J., Lythgoe, London: Academic Press. (In the Press.)Google Scholar
Joseph, J., 1957. Extinction measurements to indicate distribution and transport of water masses. Proceedings of the UNESCO symposium on physical oceanography, Tokyo, 1955, 5975. Paris: UNESCO.Google Scholar
King, P. E. & Crapp, G. B., 1971. Littoral pycnogonids of the British Isles. Field Studies, 3, 455–80.Google Scholar
Kitching, J. A. & Ebling, F. J., 1967. Ecological studies at Lough Ine. Advances in Ecological Research, 4, 197291.Google Scholar
Kramp, P. L. & Damas, D., 1925. Les Méduses de la Norvège. Introduction et Partie spéciale I. Videnskabelige Meddelelser fra Dansk naturhistorisk Forening i Kjobenhavn, 80, 217323.Google Scholar
Laverack, M. S. & Blackler, M., 1974. Fauna and flora of St Andrews Bay. 310 pp. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.Google Scholar
Lepakoski, E. 1969. Transitory return of the benthic fauna of the Bornholm basin after extermination by oxygen insufficiency. Cahiers de biologie marine, 10, 163–72.Google Scholar
Lewis, J. R., 1964. The ecology of rocky shores. 323 pp. London: English Universities Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, J. R., 1968. Water movements and their role in rocky shore ecology. Sarsia, 34, 1336.Google Scholar
Lilley, S. J., Sloane, J. F., Bassindale, R.Ebling, F. J. & Kitching, J. A., 1953. The ecology of Lough Ine Rapids with special reference to water currents. IV. The sedentary fauna of sublittoral boulders. Journal of Animal Ecology, 22, 87122.Google Scholar
Lundbeck, W., 1910. Porifera. III. Danish Ingolf-Expedition, 6, (3) 1124.Google Scholar
Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 1957. Plymouth Marine Fauna, xliii, 457 PP. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom.Google Scholar
Millar, P. J., 1969. Systematics and biology of the leopard-spotted goby, Gobicus ephippiatus (Teleostei: Gobiidae), with a description of a new genus and notes on the identity of G. macrolepis Kolombatovic. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 49, 831–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milne, P. H., 1972. Hydrography of Scottish west coast sea lochs. Marine Research, No. 3, 50 pp. Edinburgh: HMSO.Google Scholar
Muntz, L., Norton, T. A.Ebling, F. J. & Kitching, J. A., 1972. The ecology of Lough Ine. XVIII. Factors controlling the distribution of Corynactis viridis Allman. Journal of Animal Ecology, 41, 735–50.Google Scholar
Nelson-Smith, A. & Gee, J. M., 1966. Serpulid tubeworms (Polychaeta: Serpulidae) around Dale, Pembrokeshire. Field Studies, 2, 331–57.Google Scholar
Norton, T. A. & Milburn, J. A., 1972. Direct observations on the sublittoral marine algae of Argyll, Scotland. Hydrobiologia, 40, 5568.Google Scholar
Parke, M. & Dixon, P. S., 1968. Check-list of British marine algae – second revision. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 48, 783832.Google Scholar
Reish, D. J., 1966. Relationship of polychaetes to varying dissolved oxygen concentrations. Third International Conference on water pollution research, Munich. Section 3, Paper 10, 110. Washington: Water Pollution Control Federation.Google Scholar
Robson, J. H., 1914. A new gymnoblastic hydroid. Report of the Dove Marine Laboratory, Cullercoats, Northumberland, (N.S.), 3, 104–5.Google Scholar
Round, F. E., Sloane, J. F., Ebling, F. J. & Kitching, J. A., 1961. The ecology of Lough Ine. X. The hydroid Sertularia operculata (L.) and its associated flora and fauna: effects of transference to sheltered water. Journal of Ecology, 49, 617–29.Google Scholar
Russell, F. S., 1953. The medusae of the British Isles. 530 pp. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Ryland, J. S., 1969, A nomenclatural index to ‘A history of the British marine polyzoa’ by T. Hinks (1880). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Zoology, 17, 207–60.Google Scholar
Strøm, K. M., 1936. Land-locked waters. Hydrography and bottom deposits in badly ventilated Norwegian fjords with remarks upon sedimentation under anaërobic conditions. Skrifter utgitt av det Norske videnskaps-akademi i Oslo. I, Mat.-naturv. Klasse., 7, 185.Google Scholar
Tebble, N., 1966. British bivalve seashells. 212 pp. London: British Museum (Natural History).Google Scholar
Theede, H., Ponat, A., Hiroki, K. & Schlieper, C., 1969. Studies on the resistance of marine bottom invertebrates to oxygen-deficiency and hydrogen sulphide. Marine Biology, 2, 325–37.Google Scholar
Topsent, E., 1889. Quelques spongiaires du Bane de Campeche et de la Pointe-a-Pitre. Memoires de la Societe zoologique de France, 2, 3052.Google Scholar