On the behaviour of barnacles. IV: The influence of temperature On cirral activity and survival of some warm-water species

Abstract

SUMMARY: The range of temperatures over which the cirri were active and the frequency of beating at different temperatures were measured in four species of barnacles collected on the southern and south-western coasts of France. The extremes of high temperature at which the animal remained irritable or could survive were assessed in these species and in a further group of species from Trinidad, West Indies.The results are discussed in comparison with previous evidence for species of more northern distribution, and related to the geographical range of the species and the ecological niche occupied. For example, the brackish water species, Balanus eburneus and B. improvisus, have similar patterns of cirral activity, but the greater tolerance of high temperatures shown by the former is obviously connected with its more tropical distribution. Differences in temperature tolerances of varieties of JB. amphitrite from Europe and Trinidad, possibly related to differences in the tide levels at which they live, tend to reinforce their separation on morphological grounds. More pronounced differences between Chthamalus depressus and C. stellatus confirm the separation of these two species which were formerly regarded as varieties. The relatively lower rate of beating of C. depressus which is not found north of the Mediterranean and its greater tolerance of high temperatures compared with C. stellatus, may be related to its more southern distribution and its ability to live at very high levels on the shore. These two species and C. fragilis from Trinidad all show greater tolerance of high temperatures than the species of Balanus and Tetraclita, which are found at lower levels on the shoreIt is concluded that in the North Atlantic area there may be only two main distributional groups of species of acorn barnacles, Arctic and Tropical, overlapping in the Temperate regions, with few or no intermediate forms, and that there is as yet no evidence for the existence of physiological races in these species.