Question

What behavioral adaptations do the larval stages of intertidal invertebrates use to avoid being swept offshore and settling in unsuitable habitat?

Discuss how the effects of limpets and chitons on other species allow barnacles to persist?

Answer 1

Many species exhibit swimming rhythms of reverse tidal vertical migration to aid in their transport away from their hatching site. Individuals can also exhibit tidal vertical migrations to reenter the estuary when they are competent to settle

As larvae reach their final pelagic stage, they become much more tactile; clinging to anything larger than themselves. they would swim vigorously until they encountered a floating object, which they would cling to It was hypothesized that by clinging to floating debris, they can be transported towards shore due to the oceanographic forces of internal waves] which carry floating debris shoreward regardless of the prevailing currents.

Once returning to shore, settlers encounter difficulties concerning their actual settlement and recruitment into the population. Space is a limiting factor for sessile invertebrates on rocky shores. Settlers must be wary of adult filter feeders, Settlers must also avoid becoming stranded out of water by waves, and must select a settlement site at the proper tidal height to prevent desiccation and avoid competition and predation. To overcome many of these difficulties, some species rely on chemical cues to assist them in selecting an appropriate settlement site. These cues are usually emitted by adult conspecifics, but some species cue on specific bacterial mats or other qualities of the substrate

Marine larvae use sound and vibrations to find a good habitat where they can settle and metamorphose into juveniles

Far from shore, larvae are able to use magnetic fields to orient themselves towards the coast over large spatial scales

Limpets and chitons are common and commonly overlooked tidepool animals.

Limpets eat by grazing on algae found on rock surfaces. They scrape films of algae from the rock with a radula, a ribbon-like tongue with rows of teeth. Limpets move by rippling the muscles of their foot in a wave-like motion

Common limpets are herbivorous, but they likely also eat young barnacles and other things that settle on their home rocks. Chitons eat algae, bryozoans, diatoms, barnacles Nearly all chitons are grazing herbivores. The radula is used to scrape microscopic algae and even bacteria off the rocks they are grazing. A few species of chitons are predators eating other small invertebrates, such as shrimp and possibly even small fish.

Barnacles, although they don’t look much like it, are crustaceans, more closely related to crabs than they are to chitons, and belong to the larger grouping (phylum) Arthropoda, the jointed-legged animals, along with insects, spiders etc. The affinities of barnacles are more obvious in their larval stages, which are very like those of many other crustaceans.

Both chitons and limpets are members of the gigantic mollusk family, a phylum of animals that includes species from octopuses to land snails.

Chitons are members of the class Polyplacophora. Highly adapted for life on rocky surfaces in the intertidal zone chitons are distinguished by their low profile ellipsoid shape. They cling to hard surfaces with structures called a foot and girdle and feed on algae and other tiny organisms they acquire by scraping the surface just as a snail does using radula.

Limpets on the other hand, on the other rock actually, belong to a class of molluscs called Gastropods. This is the largest group of molluscs comprising of over 30,000 species to date. There are surely others to be discovered. Limpets are identifiable by their conical, symmetrical shell and pronounced pinnacle unlike the flat shells of the chitons. If you were turn a limpet over you would see a very snail like body underneath. And like their snail relatives they cling to the surface via a large “foot.” Our Northwest species breathe through a single gill that protrudes from the left side of the limpet’s body and extends to the right side of the animal. The round shell of the limpet overhangs the animal’s hidden body thus allowing a constant flow of water over the gill.

I have explained as much as I have understood from the contents I referred

I love’d to hear your feedback and Rating. If you like the answer please give me a positive rating, which will boost me more. Thank you.