Forty Years of Changes in Species Composition and Population Density of Barnacles on a Rocky Shore Near Plymouth

• Published in: Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom
• Main Author: Southward, A. J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1991
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s002531540005311x; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S002531540005311X

The abundance of the common intertidal barnacles, Chthamalus montagui, Chthamalus stellatus, Semibalanus balanoides and Elminius modestus has been monitored since 1951 at a site near Cellar Beach, River Yealm, south Devon. Counts are made at 12 levels on a transect between high tide and low tide. The two chthamalids are of warm-water distribution while S. balanoides is a boreo-arctic species; changes in the abundance of these species are linked to environmental temperature. Maximum fluctuations occur in the lowermost third of the intertidal zone. The proportion of Chthamalus adults is correlated with annual mean inshore sea temperature two years earlier, while the proportion of S. balanoides adults is negatively so correlated. This relationship accounts for over 40% of the variance. A smaller part of the variance (<20%) is explained by intensity of larval settlement, also related to climate. The fourth barnacle, E. modestus , is an Australasian immigrant that arrived in England during World War II and reached south Devon in 1948. It increased during the 1950s on the transect but has since stabilized at a low level of abundance that shows large interannual variations not directly related to temperature. Between 1951 and 1975, coinciding with a secular decline in sea temperature, there was a long-term trend towards reduction of Chthamalus and increase in S. balanoides this trend has reversed since. Removal of the long-term trend reveals a short-term fluctuation of approximately 10-y frequency that correlates with a cycle in sea temperature two years earlier. These cycles are close to the 10–11 y solar (sunspot) cycle between 1951 and 1975.