Impact of Wave Exposure on Seasonal Morphological
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 2012, 92(7), 1595–1601. # Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 2012 doi:10.1017/S0025315412000173 Impact of wave exposure on seasonal morphological and reproductive responses of the intertidal limpet Fissurella crassa (Mollusca: Archaegastropoda) jose’ pulgar1, marcos alvarez5, alejandro delgadillo1,4, ines herrera1, samanta benitez1,2, juan pablo morales5, pilar molina3, marcela aldana1,3,6 and victor manuel pulgar7 1Universidad Andres Bello, Departamento de Ecologı´a & Biodiversidad, Repu´blica 470, Santiago Chile, 2Universidad Andres Bello Escuela de Biologı´a Marina, Repu´blica 440, Santiago, Chile, 3Pontificia Universidad Cato´lica de Chile, Alameda 370, Santiago, Chile, 4Escuela de Ingenierı´a en Acuicultura, Universidad Andres Bello, Repu´blica 440, Santiago, Chile, 5Universidad Andres Bello, Facultad de Ciencias Biolo´gicas, Repu´blica 217, Santiago, Chile, 6Escuela de Pedagogı´a en Biologı´a y Ciencias, Facultad de Ciencias de la Educacio´n, Universidad Central de Chile, Santa Isabel 1278, Santiago, 7Center for Research in Obstetrics & Gynecology, Wake Forest School of Medicine and Biomedical Research Infrastructure Center, Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem NC, USA Intertidal organisms have long been considered an ideal system to quantify how physical variations determine differential energy allocations in specimens inhabiting environmental gradients such as exposure to wave action. In habitats with differ- ential intertidal wave exposure (sheltered, Sh; and exposed, E) seasonal gonadal and foot weight variations and their associ- ations with exposure and food availability (algae abundance) were determined in the keyhole limpet Fissurella crassa. Gonadal weight is used as a measure of reproduction allocation whereas foot weight is an indirect indicator of energy allo- cation to survival.
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