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Larval body size–mass relationships of barnacles common to the English Channel coast of the UK

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2010

E. Muxagata*
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande—FURG, Laboratório de Zooplâncton, Instituto de Oceanografia, Avenida Itália, km8, Campus Carreiros, Caixa Postal 474–96201-900, Rio Grande, RS—Brazil
J.A. Williams
Affiliation:
School of Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, European Way, SO14 3ZH, Southampton, United Kingdom
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: E. Muxagata, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande—FURG, Laboratório de Zooplâncton, Instituto de Oceanografia, Avenida Itália, km8, Campus Carreiros, Caixa Postal 474–96201-900, Rio Grande, RS—Brazil email: e.muxagata@gmail.com
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Abstract

The study presents dry mass and body measurements of the larval stages of five common barnacle species occurring in mesozooplankton catches of Southampton Water and the central Solent area of the south coast of the UK. Quantitative samples were collected with conventional 120-μm mesh plankton nets. Species-specific regression equations relating carapace width and total length with dry mass were obtained for stage II to stage VI nauplii and cyprids of Austrominius modestus, Amphibalanus improvisus, Balanus crenatus, Semibalanus balanoides and Verruca stroemia. Width–dry mass and length–dry mass regressions obtained in the present study accounted for more than 98% of the variability for naupliar stages, and length–dry mass for 80% of the variability for cyprids. The dry mass of barnacle larvae predicted from carapace width equations determined here differed by only –6% from the measured dry masses of an independent data set, suggesting these first-reported equations of barnacle larvae are useful additions to zooplankton production studies.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2010
Figure 0

Fig. 1. The Southampton Water study area, with indication of sampling sites during 2001–2002.

Figure 1

Table 1. Number (N) of nauplii and cyprids from a particular sampling site and date of collection that were used in each biomass determination, with rep. indicating the number of replicates made for each determination.

Figure 2

Table 2. Comparison of dry masses (μg) of fresh and preserved (4% borax buffered formaldehyde solution) late stages larvae of Austrominius modestus.

Figure 3

Table 3. Mean mass values (μg) of the naupliar stages II to VI + cypris stages of cirripedes, together with the % of ash considered for each stage, and the averaged body measurements of each larval stage used in the biomass analysis.

Figure 4

Fig. 2. Simple regression analysis between dry mass values with carapace width (left) and also with total length (right) measurements for naupliar stages (II to VI) of the 5 barnacle species considered. Regression equations are also shown. DM, dry mass (μg individual−1); CW, carapace width (μm individual−1); TL, total length (μm individual−1); r, correlation coefficient; r2, coefficient of determination; p, significance level; n, number of data points. Solid line indicates the resulting equation and broken line indicates 0.95 confidence interval.

Figure 5

Fig. 3. Simple regression analysis between dry mass values with carapace width (A) and also with total length (B) measurements of naupliar stages (II to VI) of the 5 barnacle species pooled and the simple regression analysis between dry mass values with total length measurements of all cypris stages of the barnacle species pooled (C). Regression equations are shown on each figure. DM, dry mass (μg individual−1); CW, carapace width (μm individual−1); TL, total length (μm individual−1); r, correlation coefficient; r2, coefficient of determination; p, significance level; n, number of data points. Solid line indicates the resulting equation and broken line indicates 0.95 confidence interval.

Figure 6

Table 4. Mean carapace width (μm) and mass values (μg) of the naupliar stages II to VI and cyprids of Austrominius modestus cultured in laboratory at given temperatures and salinities of 30–33 (Harms, 1986, 1987) and the resulting predicted dry mass (DM) values generated using nauplii carapace width equations for A. modestus (Figure 2A) and total cypris length equations (Figure 3C) on Harms (1986, 1987) data, together with the % difference to average DM predicted from carapace width (CW) or total length (TL) in this study.