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Effects of temperature on activity, food consumption rates, and gut passage times of seaweed-eating Tegula species (Trochidae) from California

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Abstract

Previous feeding studies on herbivorous marine snails rarely have focused on temperature effects on food intake. If temperature affects food intake, ectothermic snails may experience difficulty obtaining sufficient nutritional resources, limiting their ability to sustain populations at suboptimal temperatures. We hypothesized that the feeding responses of Tegula species would correspond with temperatures characteristic of their geographic distributions. We determined activity, consumption rates, and gut passage times at 11°C, 15°C, 19°C, and 23°C for three Tegula species with distinct thermal distributions: T. brunnea (cold water), T. aureotincta (warm water), and individuals from warm- and cold-water populations of T. funebralis, a broadly distributed species. Activity and consumption rates of T. aureotincta increased with increasing temperature, but were highest for T. brunnea at 19°C, a temperature rarely achieved in habitats occupied by this species, and lowest at 11°C. Warm-water T. funebralis showed significantly lower activity and consumption rates at 11°C, whereas cold-water T. funebralis consumed food fastest at 15°C and were most active at 23°C. Temperature affected gut passage time only in T. aureotincta. These data suggest that temperature might influence the northern limit of T. aureotincta by affecting activity and food consumption rates. T. brunnea’s activity and ability to consume food were not hindered by warmer temperatures despite the present day restriction of this species to colder waters. Also, widely separated (>300 km) T. funebralis populations may be adapted to regional conditions based on the different temperature responses of northern and southern snails.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the assistance of D. Reid, J. Dodge, S. Phelps, and E. Seale in performing aspects of this study. We are grateful for the assistance and suggestions provided by K. Dickson and M. Horn on earlier drafts of this paper. We thank K. Donovan for assistance in preparing Fig. 1. E.H.Y. was supported as a University of Southern California Sea Grant Trainee during this study, and would also like to acknowledge support from a CSU Graduate Equity Fellowship. Support for this research was provided by the Departmental Association Council and the Department of Biological Science at California State University, Fullerton, the Frank M. Doyle Foundation and by a Sigma Xi grant. All procedures used in these experiments comply with the current laws of the United States of America.

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  1. Department of Biological Science, California State University at Fullerton, P.O. Box 6850, Fullerton, CA, 92834-6850, USA

    E. H. Yee & S. N. Murray

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  1. E. H. Yee
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Correspondence to S. N. Murray.

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Communicated by P.W. Sammarco, Chauvin

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Yee, E.H., Murray, S.N. Effects of temperature on activity, food consumption rates, and gut passage times of seaweed-eating Tegula species (Trochidae) from California. Marine Biology 145, 895–903 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-004-1379-6

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