Marine intertidal organisms are subjected to a variety of abiotic stresses, including aerial exposure and wide ranges of temperature. Intertidal species generally have higher thermal tolerance limits than do subtidal species, and tropical species have higher thermal tolerance limits than do temperate species. The adaptive significance of upper thermal tolerance limits of intertidal organisms, h...

size at sexual maturity and patterns of somatic growth are important aspects of reproductive history of crab. the main purpose of this study is to provide an estimate for the onset of morphological sexual maturity in mangrove crab, opusia indica from a population located in korangi creek intertidal mud flat (karachi, pakistan) based on relative growth. the crabs were monthly collected through q...

Identifying pathways that animals use to move among ecosystems has become a focus for improving conservation planning. The function of habitat corridors in facilitating animal movement among terrestrial ecosystems is well established. By contrast, the role of habitat corridors for the movement of marine animals is poorly understood. We used underwater video cameras to evaluate the effects of se...

The vertical zonation patterns of intertidal organisms have been topics of interest to marine ecologists for many years, with interspecific food competition being implicated as a contributing factor to intertidal community organization. In this study, we used behavioral bioassays to examine the potential roles that interspecific aggression and food competition have on the structuring of interti...

ABSTRACT The intertidal zone is one of the most stressful environments, with extreme shifts in temperature, salinity, pH and oxygen concentration. Marine molluscs, particularly chitons that belong to category ecologically significant organisms, survive this environment, are ideal systems for studying stress adaptation. Mitochondria known be critical energy homeostasis, changes environmental fac...

We examined stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios for a large variety of consumers in intertidal and subtidal habitats, and their potential primary food sources [i.e., microphytobenthos (MPB), phytoplankton, and Phragmites australis] in a coastal bay system, Yeoja Bay of Korea, to test the hypothesis that the transfer of intertidal MPB-derived organic carbon to the subtidal food web can be ...

The midintertidal zone of temperate rocky coasts is often dominated by mussels that form dense beds and exclude other primary space holders. The rate at which storms remove mussels from their substrate consequently has a controlling influence on intertidal community structure. The rate of disturbance by waves can be predicted mechanistically by comparing the attachment strength of an organism t...

We measured the variability in hydrodynamic forces among locations separated by only centimeters along three horizontal transects on a steep rocky shore. Our results extend previous work showing that wave forces have the characteristics of 1/f-noise, in which variability in wave forces decreases exponentially with decreasing scales of measurement. Furthermore, our results suggest that protectio...

To understand the mechanisms of invasions it is necessary to explore how thermal environments affect the distribution of both native and invasive species. We examined patterns of species distribution at several scales to determine how thermal selection affects the distribution of native (Mytilus trossulus) and invading (M. galloprovincialis) mussels inhabiting marine rocky intertidal and subtid...