Dispersal strategies of benthic species and water current variability in the Corsica Channel (Western Mediterranean)

Abstract

SUMMARY: Macrofauna and their dispersal strategies were identified in the fouling communities settling on current meter moorings deployed in the Corsica Channel. Oceanographic arrays provided time series of water current and substratum for colonisation of fauna. Larvae, sexual propagules, juveniles have different lengths of the planktonic phase. Some of these strategies are time-limited but others could survive indefinitely in the plankton. Current measurements indicate that fluxes are directed northward with reduced variability in direction and some fluctuations in magnitude with greater speeds in winter. The Corsica Channel is a one way gate for water fluxes from the Tyrrhenian Sea toward the Ligurian Sea. This gate could be "open" or "closed" for biological transport if length of planktonic phases and magnitude of current are consistent with the distances that dispersal forms have to travel to reach a suitable habitat. Strategies with an "unlimited" planktonic phase are less influenced by current variability.

Reproduction, population dynamics and production of Nereis falsa (Nereididae: Polychaeta) on the rocky coast of El Kala National Park, Algeria

“…This species has been recorded along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean [Atlantic coast of Morocco (Fadlaoui and Retière 1995), Namibia (Glassom and Branch 1997) and South Africa (Day 1967), North American Atlantic coast (Posey et al 2002(Posey et al , 2006, Florida Bay (Vittor 1997a(Vittor , 1998, north coast of the Gulf of Mexico (Vittor 1984), Galveston Bay in the Gulf of Texas (Vittor 1997b), north-east coast of Venezuela (Arana and Diaz 2006), Colombian Caribbean coast (Baez and Ardila 2003)] and the Mediterranean Sea [Algésiras Bay in Spain (Sanchez-Moyano et al 2001), Cueta harbour in Morocco (Guerra-Garcia et al 2003;Guerra-Garcia and GarciaGomez 2004), Circeo National Park on the Italian Adriatic coast (Andrea and Giancarlo 2003), Izmir Bay/Turkey (Ertan Ç inar et al 2008), on floating debris in the Liguran Sea (Alliani and Meloni 1999) and on current metre moorings deployed in the Corsica Channel (Alliani and Meloni 1999)]. Moreover, this species lives as epibiont on loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) nesting on the coast of Georgia, USA (Pfaller et al 2006), and on mussels Mytilus galloprovincialis in Izmir Bay, eastern Mediterranean (Ertan Ç inar et al 2008).…”

Peer Review #2 of "Oceanographic moorings as year-round laboratories for investigating growth performance and settlement dynamics in the Antarctic scallop Adamussium colbecki (E. A. Smith, 1902) (v0.2)"

“…These OMs also intrinsically represent simple hard substrates on which a variety of invertebrates may settle. For example, a community of species dispersing over long distances in the ocean, which can be included in the widely spread "Club of Superwanderers" (Cornelius, 1992;Aliani and Meloni, 1999), often settle on these offshore structures.…”

Comparative distribution of the fan mussel Atrina fragilis (Bivalvia, Pinnidae) in protected and trawled areas of the north Aegean Sea (Thermaikos Gulf)

“…It is considered rare, although Atrina fragilis is widely distributed in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Concerning the latter area, the species has been reported from the Alboran Sea (Hiscock & Jones, 2004), the Balearic (Pubill et al, 2011), the Ligurian (Alliani & Meloni, 1999), the Tyrrhenian (Alliani & Meloni, 1999), the Adriatic (Hall-Spencer et al, 1999;Pranovi et al, 2001;Simunovic et al, 2001;Casellato & Stefanon, 2008), and the Aegean Sea (Zenetos, 1997;Demir, 2003). A. fragilis lives on sandy bottoms consisting of a mixture of with and terrigenous ooze sediments (Gamulin-Brida, 1967;Simunovic et al, 2001); it is a characteristic species of detritic bottom communities (Gamulin-Brida, 1974).…”