Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Helpful habitant or pernicious passenger: interactions between an infaunal bivalve, an epifaunal hydroid and three potential predators

  • Community Ecology
  • Published:
Oecologia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The importance of positive interspecific interactions within physically stressful habitats has received increased attention from community ecologists. The exposed sandy beach is an example of a physically rigorous environment where biological interactions have long been considered insignificant. We examined the interaction between the infaunal clam, Donax variabilis, and the hydroid, Lovenella gracilis, on exposed sandy beaches in North Carolina. Epibiotic occupation of Donax by hydroids has been repeatedly observed on ocean beaches but rarely investigated. By providing a stable substrate for attachment, the clam facilitates the persistence of the hydroid in the intertidal beach; however, benefits or costs experienced by the host as a result of this association are unknown. By exposing clams with and without hydroid colonies to multiple types of clam predators, we tested the effectiveness of the hydroid, which possesses stinging nematocysts, in defending its host. The hydroid defended the clam against one common predator, the Florida pompano (Trachinotus carolinus). Against speckled crabs (Arenaeus cribrarius) and ghost crabs (Ocypode quadrata), however, the hydroid offered no protection for its host and instead facilitated predation. The epibiotic hydroid, which projects above the surface of the sand, allowed the crabs to more readily detect clams below the surface. In the field, we evaluated the effect of the hydroid on the tidally synchronized migrations and burrowing speed of the clam. The hydroid, which can form large colonies on the posterior end of the clam, had no effect on Donax burrowing speed, but did reduce the speed of transport of clams by wave swash. Depending on relative predation pressure, the occupation of D. variabilis by L. gracilis can alternately be characterized as beneficial or detrimental to the host.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 4.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson WD, Dias JK, Dias RK, Cupka DM, Chamberlain NA (1977) The macrofauna of the surf zone off Folly Beach, South Carolina. NOAA Technical Report NMFS SSFR-704. US Department of Commerce, Washington

  • Ansell AD (1983) The biology of the genus Donax. In: McLachlan A, Erasmus T (eds) Sandy beaches as ecosystems. Junk, The Hague, pp 607–635

  • Armitage TM, Alevizon WS (1980) The diet of the Florida pompano (Trachinotus carolinus) along the east coast of central Florida. Fla Sci 43:19–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Bertness MD, Callaway R (1994) Positive interactions in communities. Trends Ecol Evol 9:191–193

    Google Scholar 

  • Bertness MD, Hacker SD (1994) Physical stress and positive associations among marsh plants. Am Nat 144:363–372

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bertness MD, Leonard GH (1997) The role of positive interactions in communities: lessons from intertidal habitats. Ecology 78:1976–1989

    Google Scholar 

  • Bertness MD, Leonard GH, Levine JM, Schmidt PR, Ingraham AO (1999) Testing the relative contribution of positive and negative interactions in rocky intertidal communities. Ecology 80:2711–2726

    Google Scholar 

  • Blanquet R (1970) Ionic effects on discharge of the isolated and in situ nematocysts of the sea anemone, Aiptasia pallida: a possible role of calcium. Comp Biochem Physiol 35:451–461

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bonsdorff E, Nelson WG (1992) The ecology of coquina clams Donax variabilis Say, 1822, and Donax parvula Philippi, 1849, on the east coast of Florida. Veliger 35:358–365

    Google Scholar 

  • Bouillon J (1985) Essai de classification des hydropolypes hydromeduses. Indo-Malayan Zool 2:29–243

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooker RW, Callaghan TV (1998) The balance between positive and negative plant interactions and its relationship to environmental gradients: a model. Oikos 81:196–207

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks WR, Gwaltney CL (1993) Protection of symbiotic Cnidarians by their hermit crab hosts: evidence for mutualism. Symbiosis 15:1–13

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks WR, Mariscal RN (1985) Protection of the hermit crab Pagarus pollicarus Say from predators by hydroid colonized shells. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 87:111–118

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown AC, McLachlan A (1990) Ecology of sandy shores. Elsevier, New York

  • Calder DR (1990) Seasonal cycles of activity and inactivity in some hydroids from Virginia and South Carolina, USA. Can J Zool 68:442–450

    Google Scholar 

  • Chapman DM (1983) Sediment reworking on sandy beaches. In: McLachlan A, Erasmus T (eds) Sandy beaches as ecosystems. Junk, The Hague, pp 45–61

  • Clements FE, Weaver J, Hansson H (1926) Plant competition: an analysis of the development of vegetation. Carnegie Institute, Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coe WR (1955) Ecology of the bean clam Donax gouldi on the coast of Southern California. Ecology 36:512–514

    Google Scholar 

  • Dayton PK (1975) Experimental evaluation of ecological dominance in a rocky intertidal algal community. Ecol Monogr 45:137–159

    Google Scholar 

  • Defeo O, Brazeiro A, de Alva A, Riestra G (1997) Is sandy beach macrofauna only physically controlled? Role of substrate and competition in isopods. Estuar Coast Shelf Sci 45:453–462

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellers O (1995a) Form and motion of Donax variabilis in flow. Biol Bull 189:138–147

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellers O (1995b) Behavioral control of swash-riding in the clam Donax variabilis. Biol Bull 189:120–127

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellers O (1995c) Discrimination among wave-generated sounds by a swash-riding clam. Biol Bull 189:128–137

    Google Scholar 

  • Fields HM (1962) Pompanos (Trachinotus spp.) of the South Atlantic coast of the United States. Fishery Bulletin of the US Fish and Wildlife Service 207 vol 62, Washington, D.C.

  • Gilbert C (1986) Species profiles: life histories and environmental requirements of coastal fishes and invertebrates (South Florida) Florida pompano. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers TR EL-82–4. Biological Report 82 (11.42). U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Lafayette

    Google Scholar 

  • Gili J, Hughes RG (1995) The ecology of marine benthic hydroids. Oceanogr Mar Biol Annu Rev 33:351–426

    Google Scholar 

  • Grant WC, Pontier PJ (1973) Fitness in the hermit crab Pagurus acadianus with reference to Hydractinia echinata. Bull Mt Desert Island Biol Lab 13:50–53

    Google Scholar 

  • Hacker SD, Gaines SD (1997) Some implications of direct positive interactions for community species diversity. Ecology 78:1990–2003

    Google Scholar 

  • Hildebrand SF, Schroeder WC (1928) Fishes of the Chesapeake Bay. Fish Bull 43:1–366

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson JBC (1977) Competition on marine hard substrata: the adaptive significance of solitary and colonial strategies. Am Nat 111:743–767

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jaramillo E, McLachlan A (1993) Community and population responses to physical factors over a range of exposed sandy beaches in South-central Chile. Estuar Coast Shelf Sci 37: 615–624

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson PT (1966) On Donax and other sandy-beach inhabitants. Veliger 9:29–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson RW (1988) The nature of the relationship between the hermit crab Pagarus longicarpus, and one of its ectosymbionts, Hydractinia echinata. MA thesis. University of Massachusetts, Boston

  • Leber KM (1982) Seasonality of macroinvertebrates on a temperate, high wave energy sandy beach. Bull Mar Sci 32:86–98

    Google Scholar 

  • Loesch HC (1957) Studies of the ecology of two species of Donax on Mustang Island, Texas. Publ Inst Mar Sci Univ Texas 4:201–227

    Google Scholar 

  • MacGinitie GE, MacGinitie N (1949) Natural history of marine animals. McGraw-Hill, New York

  • McArdle SB, McLachlan A (1992) Sand beach ecology: swash features relevant to the macrofauna. J Coast Res 8: 398–407

    Google Scholar 

  • McDermott JJ (1983) Food web in the surf zone of an exposed sandy beach along the Mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. In: McLachlan A, Erasmus T (eds) Sandy beaches as ecosystems. Junk, The Hague, pp 529–538

  • McLachlan A (1983) Sandy beach ecology a review. In: McLachlan A, Erasmus T (eds) Sandy beaches as ecosystems. Junk, The Hague, pp 321–380

  • McLachlan A (1998) Interactions between two species of Donax on a high energy beach: an experimental approach. J Mollusc Stud 64:492–495

    Google Scholar 

  • McLean R (1983) Gastropod shells: a dynamic resource that helps shape benthic community structure. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 69:151–174

    Google Scholar 

  • Menge BA (1978) Predation intensity in a rocky intertidal community. I. Relation between predator foraging activity and environmental harshness. II. Effect of wave action and desiccation on predator feeding rates. Oecologia 34:1–35

    Google Scholar 

  • Menge BA (2000) Testing the relative importance of positive and negative effects on community structure. Trends Ecol Evol 15:46–47

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nelson WG (1986) Predation and prey population variation in a high energy sand beach macrofauna community. Ophelia 26:305–316

    Google Scholar 

  • Olafsson EB (1986) Density dependence in suspension-feeding and deposit-feeding populations of the bivalve Macoma balthica: a field experiment. J Anim Ecol 55:517–526

    Google Scholar 

  • Olofsson J, Moen J, Oksanen L (1999) On the balance between positive and negative plant interactions in harsh environments. Oikos 86:539–543

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterson CH (1982) The importance of predation and intra- and inter-specific competition in the population biology of two infaunal suspension-feeding bivalves, Protothaca staminea and Chione undatella. Ecol Monogr 52:437–475

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterson CH, Beal BF (1989) Bivalve growth and higher order interactions: importance of density, site, and time. Ecology 70:1390–1404

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterson CH, Black R (1987) Resource depletion by active suspension feeders on tidal flats: influence of local density and tidal elevation. Limnol Oceanogr 23:143–166

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterson CH, Black R (1993) Experimental test of the advantages and disadvantages of high density for two coexisting cockles in a Southern Ocean lagoon. J Anim Ecol 62:614–633

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross SW (1996) Surf zone fishes of the South Atlantic Bight. In: Hackney CT, Posey MH, Ross SW, Norris AR (eds) A review and synthesis of data on surf zone fishes and invertebrates in the South Atlantic Bight and the potential impacts from beach renourishment. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington, North Carolina

  • Roughgarden J (1989) The structure and assembly of communities. In: Roughgarden J, May RM, Levin SA (eds) Perspectives in ecological theory. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., pp 203–226

  • Rupert EE, Fox RS (1988) Seashore animals of the Southeast: a guide to common shallow-water invertebrates of the Southeast Atlantic coast. University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, S.C.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stachowicz JJ, Lindquist N (2000) Hydroid defenses against predators: the importance of secondary metabolites versus nematocysts. Oecologia 124:280–288

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stachowitsch M (1977) The hermit crab micribiocoenosis the role of mobile secondary hard bottom elements in a North Adriatic benthic community. In: Keegan BF, Ceideigh PO, Boaden PJS (eds) Biology of benthic organisms. Pergamon, Oxford

  • Tagatz ME, Dudley DL (1961) Seasonal occurrence of marine fishes in four shore habitats near Beaufort, North Carolina, 1957–1960. Special Scientific Report—Fish. No. 390. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Lafayette

  • Turner HJ, Belding DL (1957) The tidal migrations of Donax variabilis Say. Limnol Oceanogr 2:120–124

    Google Scholar 

  • Wade BA (1967) Studies on the biology of the West Indian beach clam, Donax denticulatus Linné. I. Ecology. Bull Mar Sci 17:149–174

    Google Scholar 

  • Weissberger EJ (1995) Association of the hermit crab Pagurus longicarpus Say, 1817, with symbiotic hydroids: consequences of predation by lobsters. Crustaceana 68:739–750

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams AB (1984) Shrimps, lobsters and crabs of the Atlantic coast of the Eastern United States, Maine to Florida. Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.

  • Wolcott TG (1978) Ecological role of ghost crabs, Ocypode quadrata (Fabricius) on an ocean beach: scavengers or predators? J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 31:67–82

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Financial support for this work came from NSF Biological Oceanography grant no. OCE-0002723 to N.L. and from the North Carolina Fisheries Resource Grant Program, North Carolina Sea Grant and the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management. We gratefully thank J. A. Peterson and L. Weiss for help with collection of New Jersey clams and C. Tallent and J. Grabowski for help with collection of fish and crabs. We also thank C.H. Peterson and two anonymous reviewers for providing comments that improved the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Marine Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 3431 Arendell St., Morehead City, NC 28557, USA

    Lisa M. Manning & Niels Lindquist

Authors
  1. Lisa M. Manning
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Niels Lindquist
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lisa M. Manning.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Manning, L.M., Lindquist, N. Helpful habitant or pernicious passenger: interactions between an infaunal bivalve, an epifaunal hydroid and three potential predators. Oecologia 134, 415–422 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-002-1134-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-002-1134-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation