Ecology of Pinnidae (Mollusca: Bivalvia) from the Gulf of Thailand
- PDF / 16,083,366 Bytes
- 18 Pages / 595 x 842 pts (A4) Page_size
- 79 Downloads / 262 Views
Ecology of Pinnidae (Mollusca: Bivalvia) from the Gulf of Thailand PRINTRAKOON Cheewarat1*, ROOPNARINE Peter D2, YEEMIN Thamasak3 1 Animal Systematic Special Unit, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University, Bangkok 10900,
Thailand 2 Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Geology, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California 94118,
USA 3 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ramkhamhaeng University, Bangkok 10240, Thailand
Received 27 July 2017; accepted 1 February 2018 ©The Chinese Society of Oceanography and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract
The ecology of the family Pinnidae was studied by sampling three pinnid species from 36 sampling sites across four different microhabitats in the Gulf of Thailand. The species spatial distributions were mostly uniform, with some populations having random distributions. Species abundances differed between sandy and coral habitats according to non-metric multi-dimension scaling analyses. Although the Gulf of Thailand is a relatively small geographic area, habitats are varied enough to provide variable shell densities. Small islands are important distribution areas, and coral reefs provide both direct and indirect shelter which support high abundances, densities and increased shell size. The highest density was recorded in sand beds within coral reefs. Low density and small shell size in sand beaches might be related to high mortality in shallow water or to adaptations for survival in shallow waters. A clear correlation between sediment composition and species abundance was found in Pinna atropurpurea; abundance increased with the sand content of the sediment. For P. deltodes, abundance increased as the rock fraction of the sediment increased. These results suggest that adaptations in Pinnidae, such as shell size, shell morphology, and the exposure of the shell above the sediment-water interface, are responses for survival in different habitats. Key words: density, distribution, pinnid shell, shell adaptation, the Gulf of Thailand Citation: Printrakoon Cheewarat, Roopnarine Peter D, Yeemin Thamasak. 2018. Ecology of Pinnidae (Mollusca: Bivalvia) from the Gulf of Thailand. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, doi: 10.1007/s13131-018-1230-4
1 Introduction The Gulf of Thailand hosts a diverse array of shallow marine habitats, including nearshore coral reefs, mangrove forests and seagrass beds, which play an essential role in commercial harvesting of fish, molluscs and crustaceans (Office of Natural Resources and Environment Policy and Planning, 2004). Species of the bivalve molluscan family Pinnidae are distributed throughout the gulf and among these habitats. There are about 55 known species of recent pinnid species in the world (Schultz and Huber, 2013), concentrated mostly in tropical regions, including the Indo-Pacific, Indo-west Pacific (Rosewater, 1961; Morris and Purchon, 1981; Purchon and Purchon, 1981; Idris et al., 2008, 2011; Xue et al., 2012; Schultz and Huber, 2013), Australia (Butler and Keough, 1981
Data Loading...
