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Did a heavy storm affect the aperture area of wave-exposed and sheltered Littorina striata?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 1999

H. De Wolf
Affiliation:
University of Antwerp (RUCA), Groenenborgerlaan 171, B-2020, Antwerp, Belgium
C. Brito
Affiliation:
Universidade dos Açores, Rua da Mãe de Deus 58, PT-9502 Ponta Delgada, Açores, Portugal
S. Van Dongen
Affiliation:
University of Antwerp (UIA), Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Wilrijk, Belgium
T. Backeljau
Affiliation:
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (KBIN), Vautierstraat 29, B-1000, Brussels, Belgium

Abstract

During the winter of 1996, a heavy storm crossed the coasts of the Azores. A comparison of wave-exposed and wave-sheltered samples of the intertidal planktonic developing periwinkle Littorina striata (Mollusca: Caenogastropoda), collected before and after this storm revealed: (1) an overall difference in relative and absolute aperture area between wave-exposed and wave-sheltered samples; and (2) depending on the technique used a storm (MANOVA/CDA/1994 vs 1996 nested ANOVA) or no storm (1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, nested ANOVA) effect was noted. Preference should be given to the latter analysis as it is more correct in the present context. Nesting of the factor ‘year’ in the factor ‘storm’, allows detection of the true storm effect, disentangling it from other year exposure interactions, while the inclusion of more than one pre-storm sample allows differentiation of storm effects from ‘normal’ temporal variation.

Type
Brief Report
Copyright
© 1999 Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom

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