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Variability in epibiont colonization of shells of Fusitriton magellanicus (Gastropoda) on the Argentinean shelf

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2010

Laura Schejter*
Affiliation:
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Pesquero (INIDEP), Paseo Victoria Ocampo 1, 7600, Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Mariana Escolar
Affiliation:
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Pesquero (INIDEP), Paseo Victoria Ocampo 1, 7600, Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Claudia Bremec
Affiliation:
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Pesquero (INIDEP), Paseo Victoria Ocampo 1, 7600, Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: L. Schejter, Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Pesquero (INIDEP), Paseo Victoria Ocampo 1, 7600, Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina email: schejter@inidep.edu.ar

Abstract

An inventory of the main epibiont organisms on living specimens, on empty shells and on pagurized shells of Fusitriton magellanicus collected in Zygochlamys patagonica fishing grounds off Argentina is provided here. Additionally, considering that the presence of the thick, hairy periostracum could be an inhibitor of boring and encrusting species, we analyse the presence of a periostracum in living F. magellanicus in relation to the presence of epibionts. More than 70% of all shells bore encrusting organisms (of at least 30 taxa) but only a small proportion of shells was heavily fouled, the majority of living, empty and pagurized shells being lightly or moderately fouled. Polychaetes were the most common epibiont group (present on more than 60% of shells) while sponges and ascidians were responsible for the majority of the heavily fouled living gastropods. In general, specimens had a moderate level of encrustation and, simultaneously, a low or medium coating of periostracum. Hairy gastropods (only 14% of the sampled specimens) had few or no epibionts. A relationship between the size of the shell and the level of encrustation was only found in living gastropods. Fusitriton magellanicus is the second species in importance (after the Patagonian scallop) for the provision of a hard settlement substrate in the shelf-break frontal area of the Argentine Sea.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2010

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