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Behavioural responses of Carcinus mediterraneus Czerniavsky, 1884 to changes in salinity
Clifford G. Warman, Pere Abelló, Ernest Naylor

Behaviouralmechanisms were considered whereby Carcinus mediterraneus populationsare maintained in the deltaic bays of the Ebro Delta, E Spain, at salinities inthe range of 23-35 ppt and are absent from 38 ppt seawater in the adjacentMediterranean Sea. When exposed experimentally to cycles of salinity changefrom 38 ppt to 17 ppt, C. mediterraneus responded with increasedlocomotor activity as salinity increased and decreased around a value of approximately23 ppt. It is suggested that these responses permit the avoidance of freshwaterand of full seawater at 38 ppt in the open Mediterranean. Carcinusmediterraneus exhibit only circadian, not circatidal, free-runninglocomotor rhythmicity which is uninfluenced by simulated tidal cycles ofsalinity change.

Keywords: Activity rhythms, Carcinus mediterraneus, responses tosalinity.
Contents of this volume Sci. Mar. 55(4) : 637-643 Back PDF
 
 
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