Natural microbial communities found on different substrata exposed to the marine environment, including barnacle shell surfaces, are reported to have varying influences on the settlement and metamorphosis of competent cypris larvae. Experiments were carried out to compare the influence of settlement-inducing compounds from the bacteria isolated from the shell surface of Balanus amphitrite on it...

Gregarious settlement, an essential behavior for many barnacle species that can only reproduce by mating with a nearby barnacle, has long been thought to rely on larval ability to recognize chemical signals from conspecifics during settlement. However, the cyprid, the settlement stage larva in barnacles, has one pair of compound eyes that appear only at the late nauplius VI and cyprid stages, b...

In laboratory-based biofouling assays, the influence of physico-chemical surface characteristics on barnacle settlement has been tested most frequently using the model organism Balanus amphitrite (= Amphibalanus amphitrite). Very few studies have addressed the settlement preferences of other barnacle species, such as Balanus improvisus (= Amphibalanus improvisus). This study aimed to unravel th...

The mechanical properties of barnacle base plates were measured using a punch test apparatus, with the purpose of examining the effect that the base plate flexural rigidity may have on adhesion mechanics. Base plate compliance was measured for 43 Balanus amphitrite (=Amphibalanus amphitrite) barnacles. Compliance measurements were used to determine flexural rigidity (assuming a fixed-edge circu...

We determined the assimilation efficiencies (AEs) and efflux rate constants of Cd, Cr, and Se in barnacles Balanus amphitrite feeding on &verse planktonic prey. The measured AEs of Cd, Cr. and Se for zooplankton prey (brine shrimp Artemia salina larvae and copepods Canthocalanuspauper and Temora turbinata) were 53 to 88, 32 to 59, and 63 to 76%, respectively, and for diatom diets were 35 to 86,...

The effects of sublethal concentrations of phenol and cadmium on the phototactic responses of the stage II nauplii of the barnacle Balanus amphitrite were investigated. Increased toxicant concentrations caused a reduction in phototactic responses. Balanus amphitrite nauplii exposed to nominal phenol concentrations of 100 ppm and higher for 1–12 h failed to exhibit phototactic responses, while l...

As typical biofoulers, barnacles possess hard shells and cause serious biofouling problems. In this study, we analyzed the protein component of the barnacle Amphibalanus (= Balanus) amphitrite shell using gel-based proteomics. The results revealed 52 proteins in the A. Amphitrite shell. Among them, 40 proteins were categorized into 11 functional groups based on KOG database, and the remaining 1...