Sangphueak Suphatsara, Hui Tin Yan, Lau Sarah L Y, Williams Gray A, Wangkulangkul Kringpaka
Division of Biological Science, Faculty of Science, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla, Thailand. E-mail:
The Swire Institute of Marine Science and Area of Ecology & Biodiversity, The School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, PR China. E-mail:
Zool Stud. 2024 May 14;62:e11. doi: 10.6620/ZS.2024.63-11. eCollection 2024.
Mobile intertidal animals exhibit various strategies during emersion to mediate the impact of heat and desiccation, including behavioural adaptations such as moving to lower tidal levels and seeking thermal refuges, which can result in spatial partitioning between species within the intertidal environment. We tested whether the limpets (Heterobranchia) and (Patellogastropoda) exhibited differential habitat use during tidal emersion by quantifying their abundance and size distribution in various habitats on two rocky shores on the west coast of Thailand. inhabited higher shore levels with hotter average rock temperatures when emersed as compared to . On one of the shores, large lived at higher tidal levels than smaller individuals, whereas large showed the reverse pattern, being found lower on the shore than smaller individuals. The abundance of was positively correlated to the shore slope, with more individuals found on vertical than horizontal rocks, while showed a negative relationship between abundance and algal cover. At the heights where they were most abundant, both species were more often found in bare rock habitats as opposed to crevices and areas dominated by oyster shells, despite the fact that bare rock was as hot as or even hotter than other microhabitats. The exact resting locations of the two species were, however, cooler than the mean temperature of the bare rock. In general, limpets did not exhibit a strong preference for any particular rock orientation, but on one shore was more abundant on east-facing rocks as compared to other aspects. As a result, although thermal stress appears to be a driver for habitat partitioning between species (occupying different tidal heights), temperature alone is unable to explain distribution patterns within species, as limpets were not adopting thermal refuges during tidal emersion. Variations in the physical environments may be mediated by species-specific morphological and/or physiological adaptations which determine the distribution of different limpet species on western Thailand rocky shores.
潮间带移动动物在暴露于空气中时会展现出各种策略来减轻高温和干燥的影响，包括行为适应性，如移动到较低的潮位并寻找热庇护所，这可能导致潮间带环境中物种之间的空间分布差异。我们通过量化泰国西海岸两个岩石海岸不同栖息地中帽贝（异鳃目）和笠贝（笠贝亚纲）的丰度和大小分布，来测试它们在潮汐退潮期间是否表现出不同的栖息地利用情况。与笠贝相比，帽贝在退潮时栖息在平均岩石温度更高的较高海岸水平。在其中一个海岸，大型帽贝比小型个体生活在更高的潮位，而大型笠贝则呈现相反的模式，在海岸上的位置比小型个体更低。帽贝的丰度与海岸坡度呈正相关，在垂直岩石上发现的个体比水平岩石上更多，而笠贝的丰度与藻类覆盖度呈负相关。在它们最丰富的高度，尽管裸岩与其他微生境一样热甚至更热，但这两个物种更多地出现在裸岩栖息地，而不是裂缝和牡蛎壳占主导的区域。然而，这两个物种的确切休息位置比裸岩的平均温度更低。一般来说，帽贝对任何特定的岩石方向都没有强烈的偏好，但在一个海岸上，与其他方向相比，笠贝在朝东岩石上更为丰富。因此，尽管热应激似乎是物种间栖息地划分的一个驱动因素（占据不同的潮高），但仅温度无法解释物种内的分布模式，因为帽贝在潮汐退潮期间并未采用热庇护所。物理环境的变化可能由物种特异性的形态和/或生理适应介导，这些适应决定了泰国西部岩石海岸不同帽贝物种的分布。
