Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Ecosystems Volume 2014, Article ID 874013, 6 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/874013 Research Article Habitat Preference and Population Ecology of Limpets Cellana karachiensis (Winckworth) and Siphonaria siphonaria (Sowerby) at Veraval Coast of Kathiawar Peninsula, India Julee Faladu, Bhavik Vakani, Paresh Poriya, and Rahul Kundu Department of Biosciences, Saurashtra University, Rajkot, Gujarat 360005, India Correspondence should be addressed to Rahul Kundu;
[email protected] Received 7 May 2014; Revised 6 July 2014; Accepted 20 July 2014; Published 17 August 2014 Academic Editor: Wen-Cheng Liu Copyright © 2014 Julee Faladu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Present study reports the habitat preference and spatiotemporal variations in the population abundance of limpets Cellana karachiensis and Siphonaria siphonaria inhabiting rocky intertidal zones of Veraval coast, Kathiawar Peninsula, India. The entire intertidal zone of the Veraval coast was divided into five microsampling sites based on their substratum type and assemblage structure. Extensive field surveys were conducted every month in these microsampling sites and the population abundance of two limpet species was analyzed using belt transect method. The results revealed that C. karachiensis was the dominating species at microsampling Site-1 (having rocky substratum) possibly due to its ability to tolerate high desiccation, salinity, and temperature fluctuations, while the S. siphonaria was found to be the most dominating species at microsampling Site-2 (having rocky substratum with abundant algal population) possibly due to their preference for the perpetual wet areas.