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Microscale aspects in the diet of the limpet Patella vulgata L.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 April 2015

Gauthier Schaal  and
Jacques Grall
Gauthier Schaal*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences de l'Environnement Marin, UMR 6539 CNRS, Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Place Copernic. 29280 Plouzané, France
Jacques Grall
Affiliation:
Observatoire du Domaine Côtier FR 3113, Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Place Copernic, 29280 Plouzané, France
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: G. Schaal, Laboratoire des Sciences de l'Environnement Marin, UMR 6539 CNRS, Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Place Copernic. 29280 Plouzané, France email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The limpet Patella vulgata is a key species of northern Atlantic rocky shore-associated communities, and is commonly considered to be important in regulating populations of canopy-forming Ascophyllum nodosum, through consumption of propagules and young recruits. Although P. vulgata is usually regarded as a non-selective epilithic biofilm grazer, a role in the collapse of established A. nodosum through grazing of adult plants has been repeatedly suggested. Factors controlling the preference of P. vulgata for epilithic biofilm or adult algae are still not clearly established. Here, we test the hypothesis that the diet of P. vulgata is mainly driven by the local availability of food sources. Limpets were sampled along the first 6 metres of an A. nodosum bed–bare rock gradient. Stable isotope ratios of their muscle tissue and digestive glands were measured. The contribution of A. nodosum to the diet of limpets was the highest in the immediate vicinity of macroalgae beds, which confirmed our initial hypothesis. However, the contribution of epilithic biofilm did not match our hypothesis, being the lowest for limpets colonizing bare rock. Instead, these limpets relied on a wide array of sources, including ephemeral green algae, biofilm and drifting A. nodosum fragments. Overall, our results indicate that A. nodosum can be readily grazed by limpets, which challenges the hypothesis that these macroalgae dominate rocky shores due to the absence of strong top-down control exerted by herbivores. Our results also highlight the need to consider the small spatial scale to understand the dynamic of herbivore–algae interactions in natural environments.

Keywords

Patella vulgataAscophyllum nodosumrocky shorestable isotopesspatial variability
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 95 , Issue 6 , September 2015 , pp. 1155 - 1162
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2015 

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