Latitudinal and bathymetric trends in body size of the deep-sea gastropod Troschelia berniciensis (King)
Body size is a fundamental topic in ecology with important implications for community structure and biodiversity. Although there are numerous studies addressing patterns of geographic variation of body size in deep-sea benthos, results are conflicting. Thus geographic patterns of body size in deep-s...
| Published in: | Marine Biology |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | unknown |
| Published: |
2003
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/102151/ https://doi.org/10.1007/S00227-003-1116-6 |
| Summary: | Body size is a fundamental topic in ecology with important implications for community structure and biodiversity. Although there are numerous studies addressing patterns of geographic variation of body size in deep-sea benthos, results are conflicting. Thus geographic patterns of body size in deep-sea organisms remain poorly described. We analysed depth and latitudinal trends of body size in a species of gastropod, Troschelia berniciensis (King, 1846) from the eastern North Atlantic. We tested the hypotheses that (1) body size increases linearly with latitude and (2) body size increases with depth. Results partially supported the predictions. Firstly, there was a significant linear increase of body size with latitude, but this trend was weak. Secondly, body size decreased with depth. Environmental gradients that cause large-scale patterns of body-size variation in surface environments would have little effect on communities living at great depths. Latitudinal and depth clines may be produced by independent mechanisms that operate on different scales of time and space. |
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