Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-16T16:58:24.868Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Predation on Juvenile Lagoonal Mud Snails (Hydrobia Neglecta)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Victoria E. McArthur
Victoria E. McArthur
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Lagoonal mud snails have been shown to suffer approximately 50% mortality between hatching and adulthood. Experiments were conducted in the laboratory to assess the role of predators on the survival of juvenile Hydrobia neglecta (Mollusca: Gastropoda). Adult snails were collected from a lagoon in the Reedland Marshes system at Dunwich, Suffolk, and their eggs hatched in the laboratory, providing a population of juvenile snails which could be presented as a food source. The vessels, kept at environmental regimes close to that of the natural environment, were seeded with juvenile snails at field density. Predator preference was established by exposing the juvenile snails to combinations of potential predators found in the lagoon. One experiment also gave predators a choice of various juvenile snail sizes and other prey species. Juvenile snails remaining alive after the four week exposure to predators were removed, counted and measured. In the absence of other prey, the opisthobranch snail Retusa obtusa preferentially consumed 50% of the available juvenile H. neglecta over a four week period and the nemertean Lineus ruber up to 90%, making them the major contributors to juvenile H. neglecta mortality. The infaunal anemone Nematostella vectensis, did not have a significant impact on snail survival in the experiments but was observed (incidentally) in a separate non-experimental situation engulfing juvenile H. neglecta. The stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus and the lagoonal prawn Palaemonetes varians, did not contribute directly to the observed mortality of juvenile mud snails, but were found to consume other predators, producing a system of prey preferences in the food chain. Understanding the role of predation contributes to the understanding of ecological processes occurring in rare lagoonal systems.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 78 , Issue 3 , August 1998 , pp. 891 - 901
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1998

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

Ambrose, W.G.J., 1991. Are infaunal predators important in structuring marine soft-bottom communities? American Zoologist, 31, 849–860.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ambrose, W.G.J., 1984. Role of predatory infauna in structuring marine soft-bottomed communities. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 17, 109–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ambrose, W.G.J., 1986. Importance of predatory infauna in marine soft-bottom communities: reply to Wilson. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 32, 41–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, R.S.K., 1990. Reproductive strategies in contrasting populations of the coastal gastropod Hydrobia ulvae. II. Longevity and life-time egg production. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 138, 183–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, R.S.K., 1993. Life-history strategies in contrasting populations of the coastal gastropod Hydrobia. III. Lagoonal versus intertidal-marine H. neglecta. Vie et Milieu, 43, 73–83.Google Scholar
Berry, A.J., 1988. Annual cycle in Retusa obtusa (Montagu) (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia) of reproduction, growth and predarion upon Hydrobia ulvae (Pennant). Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 117, 197–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, A.J., Radharrishnan, K.V. & Coward, K., 1992. Is seasonal breeding in Retusa obtusa (Montagu) (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia) merely the consequence of seasonal breeding in its prey, the mud snail Hydrobia ulvae (Pennant)? Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 159, 179–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cherrill, A.J. & Lames, R., 1987. Evidence for competition between mud snails (Hydrobiidae); a field experiment. Hydrobiologia, 150, 25–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
English Nature, 1994. Natura 2000. European habitats directive. Peterborough: English Nature.Google Scholar
Fish, J.D. & Fish, S., 1981. The early life-cycle stages of Hydrobia ventrosa and H. neglecta with observations on Pomatopygrus jenkinsi. Journal of Molluscan Studies, 47, 89–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frid, C.L.J. & Lames, R., 1988. The role of epibenthic predators in structuring the marine invertebrate community of a British coastal salt marsh. Netherlands Journal of Sea Research, 22, 307–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, R., 1994. Nemerteans. Synopses of British Fauna, Linnean Society. London, no. 24.Google Scholar
Hedqvist-Johnson, K. & Andre, C., 1991. The impact of the brown shrimp Crangon crangon L. on soft-bottom meiofauna: an experimental approach. Ophelia, 34, 41–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, R.N. & Roberts, D.J., 1980. Reproductive effort of winkles (Littorina species) with contrasted methods of reproduction. Oecologia, 47, 130–136.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kneib, R.T., 1985. Predation and disturbance by the grass shrimp Palaemonetes pugio Holthius, in soft-substratum benthic invertebrate assemblage. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 93, 91–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lassen, H.H., 1979. Reproductive effort in Danish mud snails (Hydrobiidae). Oecologia, 40, 365–369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lassen, H.H. & Clark, M.E., 1979. Comparative fecundity in three Danish mud snails (Hydrobiidae). Ophelia, 18, 171–178.Google Scholar
Levinton, J.S., 1979. The effect of density upon deposit feeding populations: movement, feeding and floating of Hydrobia ventrosa Montagu (Gastropoda: Prosobranchia). Oecologia, 43, 27–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lopez, G.R. & Levinton, J.S., 1987. Ecology of deposit feeding animals in marine sediments. Quarterly Review of Biology, 62, 235–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattila, J., Ólafsson, E.B. & Lohansson, A., 1990. Predation effects of Crangon crangon on benthic infauna on shallow sandy bottoms – an experimental study from southern Sweden. In Trophic relationships in the marine environment. Proceedings of the 24th European Marine Biology Symposium, Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory, Oban, Scotland, 4–10 October 1989 (ed. M., Barnes and R.N., Gibson), pp. 1–642, Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press.Google Scholar
McArthur, V.E., 1996. The ecology of East Anglian coastal lagoons. PhD thesis, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
McDermott, J.J., 1984. The feeding biology of Nipponemertes pulcher (Johnston) (Hoplonemertea), with some ecological implications. Ophelia, 23, 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reise, K., 1978. Experiments on epibenthic predation in the Wadden Sea. Helgoländer Wissenschaftliche Meeresuntersuchungen, 31, 55–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, R.B., 1976. Conservation of the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis in Norfolk, England and its world distribution. Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists Society, 23, 257–266.Google Scholar
Wilson, W.H., 1986. Importance of predatory infauna in marine soft-sediment communities. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 32, 35–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zander, C.D., 1979. On the biology and food of small sized fish from the North and Baltic Sea area. 1. Investigations on Pomatoschistus pictus (Malm) (Gobiidae) from Helgoland. Zoologische Anzeiger, 202, 413–424.Google Scholar
Zander, C.D., 1990. Prey selection of the shallow water fish Pomatoschistus minutus (Gobiidae, Teleostei) in the SW Baltic. Helgoländer Wissenschaftliche Meeresuntersuchungen, 44, 147–157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar