Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-g7rbq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-28T21:19:17.377Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Physiological ecology of Patella. I. The effect of body size and temperature on metabolic rate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

P. Spencer Davies
P. Spencer Davies
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Glasgow and the Marine Station, Millport
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The metabolic or respiratory rate, measured as the aerobic oxygen uptake, of the limpets Patella vulgata L. and P. aspera Lamarck was determined over a range of temperatures in January and in July. In order to determine the effects upon metabolism of adaptation to habitat, P. vulgata living at high shore levels were compared with those living at low shore levels.

The respiratory rate is proportional to the power –0·3042 of the fresh body weight and the relationship is not affected by temperature or season, and is the same for both species.

There is very little difference in the rates of respiration of equal weight individuals of P. aspera and either group of P. vulgata in January. In July the respiratory rate of low-level P. vulgata and of P. aspera is higher than in January whilst that of the high-level P. vulgata is little changed.

The Q10 of respiration had a low value between the temperatures of 15–20° C in both species, and this is thought to represent a hitherto unrecognized form of acclimation to maintain metabolic constancy over the mean environmental temperature range. In P. vulgata low values of Q10 were correlated with high environmental temperatures. Lower Q10's were recorded in July than in January and, in addition, limpets which were adapted to the elevated temperature of high shore levels in July had lower Q10's than the limpets from low shore levels. This apparent acclimation of Q10 was not observed in P. aspera.

The significance of the differences in metabolic rate and in Q10 are discussed in relation to acclimation and its importance in the ecological distribution of the two species.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , October 1966 , pp. 647 - 658
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1966

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arnold, D. C. 1957. The response of the limpet Patella vulgata L. to waters of different salinities. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 36, pp. 121–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, H.Barnes, M. & Finlayson, D. M. 1963. The seasonal changes in body weight, biochemical composition, and oxygen uptake of two common boreo-arctic cirripedes, Balanus balanoides and B. balanus. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 43, pp. 185–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bullock, T. H. 1955. Compensation for temperature in the metabolism and activity of poikilotherms. Biol. Rev., Vol. 30, pp. 311–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, P. S. 1966. A constant pressure respirometer for use with medium-sized animals. Oikos, Vol. 17, pp. 108–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, P. S. & Walkey, M. 1966. The effect of body size and temperature upon oxygen consumption of the cestode Schistocephalus solidus (Müller). Comp. Biochem. Physiol., Vol. 18, pp. 415–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dehnel, P. A. 1960. Effect of temperature and salinity on the oxygen consumption of two intertidal crabs. Biol. Bull. mar. biol. Lab., Woods Hole, Vol. III, pp. 53–61.Google Scholar
Evans, R. G. 1948. The lethal temperatures of some common British littoral molluscs. J. Anim. Ecol., Vol. 17, pp. 165–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hemmingsen, A. M. 1960. Energy metabolism as related to body size and respiratory surfaces, and its evolution. Rep. Steno Mem. Hosp., Copenhagen, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 7–110.Google Scholar
Lewis, J. R. 1964. The Ecology of Rocky Shores. London: English Universities Press.Google Scholar
Precht, H. 1958. Concepts of the temperature adaptation of unchanging reaction systems of cold blooded animals. In Physiological Adaptation (ed. C. L. Prosser), pp. 50–78. Washington D.C.: American Physiological Society.Google Scholar
Prosser, C. L. 1955. Physiological variation in animals. Biol. Rev., Vol. 30, pp. 229–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prosser, C. L. & Brown, F. A. 1961. Comparative Animal Physiology, 2nd edition. Philadelphia and London: W. B. Saunders.Google Scholar
Rao, K. P. 1953. Rate of water propulsion in Mytilus californianus as a function of latitude. Biol. Bull. mar. biol. Lab., Woods Hole, Vol. 104, pp. 171–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rao, K. P. & Bullock, T. H. 1954. Q10 as a function of size and habitat temperature in poikilotherms. Am. Nat., Vol. 88, pp. 33–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Read, R. K. H. 1962. Respiration of the bivalved molluscs Mytilus edulis L. and Brachidontes demissus plicatulus as a function of size and temperature. Comp. Biochem. Physiol., Vol. 7, pp. 89–102.Google ScholarPubMed
Schliefer, C. 1957. Comparative study of Asterias rubens and Mytilus edulis from the North Sea (30 per 1,000s) and the Western Baltic Sea (15 per 1,000s). Colloque International de Biologie Marine Station Biologique de Roscoff, 1956. Année biol., T. 33, pp. 117–27.Google Scholar
Scholander, P. F.Flagg, W.Walters, V. & Irving, L. 1953. Climatic adaptation in arctic and tropical poikilotherms. Physiol. Zoöl., Vol. 26, pp. 67–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Segal, E. 1956. Microgeographic variation as thermal acclimation in an intertidal mollusc. Biol. Bull. mar. biol. Lab., Woods Hole, Vol. III, pp. 129–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snedecor, G. W. 1961. Statistical Methods Applied to Experiments in Agriculture and Biology, 5th edition. Iowa State University Press.Google Scholar
Vernberg, F. J. 1959. Studies on the physiological variation between tropical and temperate zone fiddler crabs of the genus Uca, II. Oxygen consumption of whole organisms. Biol. Bull. mar. biol. Lab., Woods Hole, Vol. 117, pp. 168–84.Google Scholar
Zeuthen, E. 1953. Oxygen uptake as related to body size in organisms. Q. Rev. Biol., Vol. 28, pp. 1–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed