Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T10:32:39.821Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mass mortality of ocean quahog, Arctica islandica, on hard substratum in Lonafjördur, north-eastern Iceland after a storm

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2009

Gudrun G. Thórarindsóttir ,
Karl Gunnarsson  and
Erlendur Bogason
Gudrun G. Thórarindsóttir*
Affiliation:
Marine Research Institute, PO Box 1390, Skúlagata 4, 121 Reykjavík, Iceland
Karl Gunnarsson
Affiliation:
Marine Research Institute, PO Box 1390, Skúlagata 4, 121 Reykjavík, Iceland
Erlendur Bogason
Affiliation:
Sævör ehf, Huldugil 25, 603 Akureyri, Iceland
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Gudrun G. Thórarindsóttir, Marine Research Institute, PO Box 1390, Skúlagata 4, 121 Reykjavík, Iceland email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

In April 2006 a heavy storm caused large quantities of ocean quahogs to be transported from their natural habitat, the soft bottom, where they live buried in the sediment, up onto a hard substratum at a lower depth. There, unable to burrow down again and escape, the clams were easy prey for predators. A year later, the diver revisited the site and observed empty shells and shell fragments, but no living clams.

Keywords

Arctica islandicaocean quahogmass mortalitystorm
Type
Research Article
Information
Marine Biodiversity Records , Volume 2 , January 2009 , e55
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Barnett, B.E. (1981) An assessment of the effects of severe weather on the intertidal fauna of the Humber estuary (South Bank), UK—consequences for biological monitoring. Marine Environmental Research 5, 51–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boesch, D.F., Diax, R.J. and Virnstein, R.W. (1976) Effects of tropical storm Agnes on soft-bottom macrobenthic communities of the James and York Estuaries and the Lower Chesapeake Bay. Chesapeake Science 17, 246–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaisson, D.R. and Rowell, T.W. (1985) Distribution, abundance, population structure and meat yield of the ocean quahog (Arctica islandica) and Stimpson's surf clam (Spisula polynyma) on the Scotian Shelf and Georges Bank. Canadian Industry Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 155, p. 134.Google Scholar
Dobbs, F.C. and Vozarik, J. (1983) Immediate effects of a storm on coastal infauna. Marine Ecology Progress Series 11, 273–279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dreyer, J., Bailey-Brock, J.H. and McCarthy, S.A. (2005) The immediate effects of Hurricane Iniki on intertidal fauna on the south shore of O'ahu. Marine Environmental Research 59, 367–380.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fogarty, M.J. (1981) Distribution and relative abundance of the ocean quahog Arctica islandica in Rhode Island Sound and off Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Journal of Shellfish Research 1, 33–39.Google Scholar
Murawski, S.A. and Serchuk, F.M. (1989) Mechanized shellfish harvesting and its management: the offshore clam fishery of the eastern United States. In Caddy, J.F. (ed.) Marine invertebrate fisheries: their assessment and management. New York: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, pp. 479–506.Google Scholar
Posey, M., Lindberg, W., Alphin, T. and Vose, F. (1996) Influence of storm disturbance on an offshore benthic community. Bulletin of Marine Science 59, 523–529.Google Scholar
Schöne, B.R., Fiebig, J., Pfeifer, M., Gless, R., Hickson, J., Johnson, A.L.J., Dreyer, W. and Oschmann, W. (2005) Climate records from a bivalved Methuselah (Arctica islandica, Mollusca; Iceland). Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology 228, 130–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, A.C. (1976) Burrowing behaviour and anaerobiosis in the bivalve Arctica islandica (L). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 56, 95–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Theede, H., Ponat, A., Hiroki, K. and Schlieper, C. (1969) Studies on the resistance of marine bottom invertebrates to oxygen-deficiency and hydrogen sulphide. Marine Biology 2, 325–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thórarinsdóttir, G.G. (1997) Distribution and abundance of juvenile ocean quahog (Arctica islandica) in Eyjafjördur, North Iceland. International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (CM Papers and Reports), CM 1997/BB:17, 9 pp.Google Scholar
Thórarinsdóttir, G.G. and Einarsson, S.T. (1994) Kúfskeljarannsóknir á austur- og norðurlandi maí til júní 1994. Report on distribution and abundance of ocean quahog in north and eastern Iceland in May–June 1994. Marine Research Institute, 27 pp. [In Icelandic.]Google Scholar
Thórarinsdóttir, G.G. and Einarsson, S.T. (1996) Distribution, abundance, population structure and meat yield of the ocean quahog, Arctica islandica, in Icelandic waters. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 76, 1107–1114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thórarinsdóttir, G.G. and Jacobson, L.D. (2005) Fishery biology and biological reference points for management of ocean quahogs (Arctica islandica), off Iceland. Fisheries Research 75, 97–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weigelt, M. and Rumohr, H. (1986) Effects of wide-range oxygen depletion on benthic fauna and demersal fish in Kiel Bay 1981–1983. Meeresforsch 31, 124–136.Google Scholar
Yeo, R.K. and Risk, M.J. (1979) Intertidal catastrophes: effect of storms and hurricanes on intertidal benthos of the Minas Basin, Bay of Fundy. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada 36, 667–669.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zwarts, L. and Wanink, J. (1989) Siphon size and burying depth in deposit- and suspension-feeding benthic bivalves. Marine Biology 100, 227–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar