THE FORMATION OF CLONAL TERRITORIES IN EXPERIMENTAL POPULATIONS OF THE SEA ANEMONEACTINIA TENEBROSA

Abstract

Fine and gross-scale clumping of electrophoretically identical anemones (genotypic clumping) was detected 11 months after mulli-clonal groups of adults had been transplanted into rock pools on two shores. The locomotory separation of non-clonemates following conflicts appeared to be the primary cause of gross-scale genotypic clumping of adults, and the fine-scale genotypic clumping of adults and recruits. The gross-scale clumping of adults and recruits must reflect the effects of localized asexual recruitment. In contrast, genotypic clumping was not detected within a third population with lower recruitment, located on a relatively smooth shore. In that population, adults were typically restricted to small individual depressions and movement was rarely detected. These data support the hypothesis that intergenotypic aggression may play an important role in determining the genotypic structure of populations, and indicate that the importance of this factor may be partially determined by the topography of the shore.