Temperature effects on summer growth rates in the Antarctic scallop, Adamussium colbecki.

• Published in: Polar Biology
• Main Authors: Heilmayer, Olaf, Honnen, C., Jacob, Ute, Chiantore, C., Cattaneo-Vietti, R., Brey, Thomas
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2005
• Subjects: Antarctic; Austral; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Polar Biology
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/11018/; https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/11018/1/Hei2004d.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-005-0716-7; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.21478; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.21478.d001

Annual growth rates of Antarctic marine organisms are low compared to their relatives from warmer waters. Previous studies hypothesize that high food availability during austral spring-summer may enable Antarctic invertebrates to attain comparatively high short-term growth rates despite the low temperature. Neither a temperature-growth experiment with juvenile Adamussium colbecki (Smith 1902) nor the comparison of A. colbecki summer growth rates with an empirical scallop specific growth-to-temperature relationship could confirm this hypothesis. Summer growth rates of young, immature A. colbecki are strongly affected by temperature as indicated by high Q10 and Arrhenius activation energy.