Barnacle growth rate on artificial substrate in the Salton Sea, California

Abstract

The Salton Sea is one of the few saline, inland lakes in the world with a population of barnacles, Balanus amphitrite. It is also one of California's most impaired water bodies due to excessive nutrient loading which leads to phytoplankton blooms and low dissolved oxygen. Currently, B. amphitrite growth is limited due to lack of hard substrate in and around the Sea. We have hypothesized that artificial substrate could support the growth of B. amphitrite and their filter-feeding would lead to improved water quality. Periodic harvesting of the barnacles would result in the permanent removal of nitrogen and phosphorus from the Sea. A 44-day in-situ experiment was carried out in the Salton Sea to assess the rate of barnacle growth and phosphorus and nitrogen sequestration on burlap sheets suspended vertically from a floating line. Burlap panels were collected weekly and the barnacles analyzed for Ca, total-P, inorganic-P, total-N, total-C, CaCO 3 , and organic matter content. After 44 days of growth, the barnacle mats weighed 7.4 kg m -2 on a dry weight basis, with 80% of the mass as shell material. The nutrient sequestration was 9.4 g P m -2 and 100 g N m -2 . Approximately half of the P was inorganic and appears to be coprecipitated with the calcium carbonate shell material. Results indicate that harvesting barnacles grown on artificial substrate in the Salton Sea would not be an effective method for removing N or P from the lake because of the relative proportions of shell material and organic material.

Acorn Barnacles Secrete Phase‐Separating Fluid to Clear Surfaces Ahead of Cement Deposition

“…We note that the average growth rate of barnacles exposed to multiple fluorophores, 94 ± 23 µm per day (mean ± 95% C.I., N = 8), is comparable to healthy barnacles in nature and much faster than barnacles whose growth is stunted by environmental stresses. [23] Figure 2b-e is the representative of barnacles in the proecdysial period of their molting cycle-that is, before the body exoskeleton and basal cuticle molt. We observe epidermal cells forming a new ring of circumferential ducts (Figure 2c; Video S1, Supporting Information) that terminate at the junction between the new and the old cuticular layers (ecdysial line).…”

Freshwater plumes and brackish lakes: Integrated microfossil and O-C-Sr isotopic evidence from the late Miocene and early Pliocene Bouse Formation (California-Arizona) supports a lake overflow model for the integration of the lower Colorado River corridor

“…Several other barnacles in the genus Amphibalanus, such as Amphibalanus improvisus and Amphibalanus amphitrite, have also been found successfully living at freshwater or near-freshwater salinities (Fyhn, 1976;Kennedy and DiCosimo, 1983). Barnacles have been reported from unquestionably nonmarine environments, such as pumping stations (Shatoury, 1958), desert oases (Pint et al, 2017), and lakes (Plaziat, 1991;Geraci et al, 2008).…”

Spatio-temporal variation in rate of carbonate deposition by encrusting organisms in different reef microhabitats from Eastern Pacific coral reefs

“…Both invertebrates are rapid colonizers. In the case of barnacles, larvae settlement may take place after only several minutes of collector deployment (Geraci et al ., 2008). Additionally, EDS, exposed to water currents but not to sedimentation, may be an ideal microhabitat for rapid settlement of larvae with passive filtering behaviour.…”

“…Such environmental settings are expected to influence the development of encrusting calcifiers that consume dissolved nutrients and particulate organic matter from the water column and hinder the development of photosynthetic organisms that would have benefited from a more clear water column (Fischer et al ., 1995; Courtenay et al ., 2005). In fact, at sites with a high load of organic matter and nutrients, barnacles may contribute almost 6 kg m −2 of calcareous material after only 44 days of growth (Geraci et al ., 2008).…”