Patterns of unsuccessful shell‐crushing predation along a tidal gradient in two geographically separated salt marshes

Dietl, Gregory P.; Alexander, Richard R.

doi:10.1111/j.1439-0485.2008.00261.x

Cited by 18 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…) circumvents the challenges associated with directly observing predation. Repair scars provide a long‐term perspective on the selective pressure that individuals experience over their lifetime to enhance or maintain shell armor (Vermeij et al , Vermeij , , Alexander and Dietl , Dietl , Dietl and Alexander ). Selection requires differential survival, and repair scars record these unsuccessful but selectively important predation attempts.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anatomy of a cline: dissecting anti‐predatory adaptations in a marine gastropod along the U.S. Atlantic coast

2017

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The scope of anti‐predatory adaptation is expected to be greater in warm than in cold environments. High temperatures lower the costs associated with the production and maintenance of energetically expensive traits and enable ecological interactions to intensify. We tested this hypothesis by characterizing the expression of anti‐predatory morphology within a marine gastropod species (the knobbed whelk Busycon carica) over a large (> 1400 km) geographic area that spans more than 10°C annual temperature variation. We also conducted experimental predation studies with a powerful durophagous predator, the stone crab Menippe, to verify the anti‐predatory advantages of a heavily ornamented shell morphology (e.g. increased thickness, pronounced spines), and we used repair scar data to assess clinal variation in selective pressure from predators. We predicted that repair scar rates would be greatest in warm southernmost latitudes, and that expression of energetically costly anti‐predatory morphology would peak in concert with elevated predation pressures. Experiments confirmed that whelks with energetically costly, heavily ornamented shells had higher survivorship rates than those with weakly ornamented shells. As predicted, we also found that the expression of anti‐predatory traits was greatest in the southern part of B. carica's range. After standardizing shells for size, shape, and exposure time to enemies, repair scar rates also peaked to the south. Taken together, these results suggest that the expression of anti‐predatory traits along the geographic cline is governed by the interaction of two selective factors: temperature and predation, with the former acting as the ultimate control on the scope of adaptation both by escalating predation pressure in the southern part of B. carica's range and by physically limiting (to the north) and facilitating (to the south) the production of anti‐predatory traits. Feedbacks between temperature and predation thus causally interact to enable and drive, respectively, the observed geographic cline in energy‐intensive anti‐predatory shell traits.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anatomy of a cline: dissecting anti‐predatory adaptations in a marine gastropod along the U.S. Atlantic coast

2017

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“…). This predation measure has been linked to increased aperture ridge thickness, both in the field and in the laboratory experiments (Dietl and Alexander , Moody and Aronson ). This is thought to better protect the periwinkle from predation by making the aperture opening smaller, thereby making it harder for predators to extract the snail from its shell.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Littoraria irrorata shell morphology and predation has received considerably more attention in the literature relative to distributions and biomass estimates (Moody and Aronson , , Dietl and Alexander ) as well as the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on snail growth (Zengel et al. , b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatial distribution and morphological responses to predation in the salt marsh periwinkle

2018

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The salt marsh periwinkle (Littoraria irrorata) is a common and often abundant mollusk in marshes of the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of the United States. Several studies have focused on the effects of periwinkles on Spartina alterniflora production and the effects of oil on periwinkle survivability, yet the general ecology of the snail has been underreported. In this study, we measured spatial distributions, biomass, shell repair frequency, and a suite of morphological characteristics of L. irrorata at three sites in each of five regions spanning the southeastern Louisiana Coast between the Atchafalaya and Mississippi rivers. Sampling was conducted along 50 m edge‐to‐interior transects in S. alterniflora‐dominated marshes. We found that L. irrorata density, individual biomass, and total areal biomass significantly varied by region. Each also significantly varied with distance from the marsh edge, with the exception of total periwinkle areal biomass. We saw a general trend across most regions where periwinkle density tended to be greatest 10 m from the marsh edge and biomass tended to be greatest 20–30 m from the marsh edge; however, neither periwinkle density nor biomass was related to S. alterniflora density or stem height. The allometric relationship between shell length and biomass varied significantly between all regions, indicating that this species has differing regional growth patterns. A possible driver of these regional patterns in allometry is differences in predation pressures, with increased predation scaring at Port Fourchon sites corresponding to snails with larger shells yet less internal biomass per length compared to other regions. This study provides the first large‐scale description of the spatial ecology and regional morphometry of the salt marsh periwinkle, an important organism in structuring salt marsh ecosystems, and suggests that the pressures exerted by L. irrorata on plant production found in other studies likely varies by geography and spatial location within a marsh.

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“…Paleoecologists and ecologists use the occurrence of predation traces, such as drillholes and crushing repair scars, to examine not only mortality patterns in gastropod populations but also patterns of prey preference and attack technique among the predator population(s) and evolutionary trends among prey lineages (e.g., Vermeij et al, 1981;Allmon et al, 1990;Kelley, 1991;Hansen and Kelley, 1995;Kelley and Hansen, 1996;Cad ee et al, 1997;Dietl and Alexander, 2000;Kowalewski et al, 2000;Alexander and Dietl, 2001;Zlotnik, 2001;Zlotnik and Ceranka, 2001;Harries and Schopf, 2003;Grey et al, 2006;Donovan and Harper, 2007;Simões et al, 2007;Skovsted et al, 2007;Dietl and Alexander, 2009;Nagel-Myers et al, 2009;Leighton et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Caedichnus, a New Ichnogenus Representing Predatory Attack on the Gastropod Shell Aperture

Stafford

Dietl

Gingras

et al. 2015

Ichnos

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Predatory traces, in which the tracemaker has damaged the prey animal's skeleton to kill and consume it, have a deep fossil history and have received much scientific attention. Several types of predatory traces have been assigned to ichnotaxa, but one of the most studied predatory traces, the wedge-shaped excision produced as a result of attacks mainly by crustaceans on the apertures of gastropod shells, has yet to be described as an ichnotaxon. We propose the ichnogenus Caedichnus to describe the shell damage produced by aperture peeling behavior. Caedichnus is produced by predators that are unable to crush their prey's shells outright. Depending on the predator's peeling ability and the prey's withdrawal depth within the shell, the trace can extend through several whorls of the shell. Aperture peel attacks may fail, allowing such damage to be repaired by surviving gastropods. Thus, the types of attacks that produce Caedichnus may exert selective pressure on prey to evolve betterdefended shells (in the case of gastropods) or to inhabit betterdefended shells (in the case of hermit crabs). The identification of these trace fossils will enhance our understanding of how predation influences the morphological, and even behavioral, evolution of prey organisms.

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Patterns of unsuccessful shell‐crushing predation along a tidal gradient in two geographically separated salt marshes

Cited by 18 publications

References 38 publications

Anatomy of a cline: dissecting anti‐predatory adaptations in a marine gastropod along the U.S. Atlantic coast

Anatomy of a cline: dissecting anti‐predatory adaptations in a marine gastropod along the U.S. Atlantic coast

Spatial distribution and morphological responses to predation in the salt marsh periwinkle

Caedichnus, a New Ichnogenus Representing Predatory Attack on the Gastropod Shell Aperture

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