New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts
Intraspecific burrow plasticity of an intertidal population of
Callianassa filholi (Crustacea: Decapoda: Thalassinidea) in relation
to environmental conditions
KATRIN BERKENBUSCH
Department of Marine Science
University of Otago
P. O. Box 56
Dunedin, New Zealand
email: katrin.berkenbusch@stonebow.otago.ac.nz
ASHLEY A. ROWDEN
Benthic Ecology Research Group
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Plymouth
Drake Circus, Plymouth
United Kingdom
Abstract Burrow morphology and intraspecific burrow
plasticity in relation to environmental conditions were examined for an
intertidal population of
Callianassa filholi Milne-Edwards, 1878 in
south-eastern New Zealand. Multivariate analysis of burrow features revealed no
significant differences in burrow morphology between seasons. However,
dissimilarities between burrows from different seasons could be identified and
included differences in lateral extent, total length, and volume of burrows.
These size parameters each showed low values in winter, coinciding with low
seawater temperature and high organic content of the sediment. There was no
significant relationship between any of the three size parameters and sediment
grain size or shore height of the burrow, but lateral extent and total length
of the burrow were significantly related to organic content of the sediment,
decreasing with increasing organic content. Furthermore, there was a
significant positive relationship between seawater temperature and total length
of the burrow. Data from the present study imply that intraspecific variation
in burrow morphology for callianassids is dependent on environmental variables,
which has consequences for the construction of useful burrow models.
Keywords burrow plasticity; Callianassa filholi;
environmental variables; multivariate analysis; Thalassinidea
M99050
Received 6 September 1999; accepted 13 December 1999
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (842K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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