Does anyone know any references?
I found a lot of Corbicula fluminea adult live specimens with abnormal deep-eroded shell (I added a picture). We measured the shell weight and thickness of these specimens and we found that they are lighter and less thick than other specimens collected in stream/rivera and lake of the same area.
What could produce this erosion? I was thinking about pH or water hardness but the stream water has a neutral pH and a total hardness of 20.9°F
Dear Daniele,
try to look these articles. May be they could be useful.
Best wishes,
Tatiana
http://mollus.oxfordjournals.org/content/45/1/19.short
http://mollus.oxfordjournals.org/content/49/3/204.short
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/f97-114
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0031018282900633
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s005310050284#page-1
Dear Daniele,
about bad shells under low water mineralization (in the Northern aterbodies ) see also:
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE STRUCTURE AND FAUNA OF ENDOSYMBIONTS OF COMMUNITIES OF TWO DREISSENID SPECIES (MOLLUSCA, DREISSENIDAE) IN THE UPPER VOLGA RESERVOIRS Pryanichnikova E.G., Tyutin A.V., Shcherbina G.K. Inland Water Biology. 2011. Т. 4. № 2. С. 203-210
Dear Daniele,
concerning the shells under new conditions (invasive bivalvia species) you can see:
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE STRUCTURE AND FAUNA OF ENDOSYMBIONTS OF COMMUNITIES OF TWO DREISSENID SPECIES (MOLLUSCA, DREISSENIDAE) IN THE UPPER VOLGA RESERVOIRS
Pryanichnikova E.G., Tyutin A.V., Shcherbina G.K.
Inland Water Biology. 2011, (4) 2: 203-210
Daniele,
I had not seen your note when I posted a similar question under "Freshwater mussels". The responses there might be helpful to you.
Thank you Keith. I read your comments/answers on this topic and I think it is a very interesting.
At the moment, I am studing three populations of Corbicula fluminea in three different streams with the same abiotic characteristics: one of them has eroded shell while the other two populations have "normal" shell. Unfortunately, I can only performe biometric analyses such dimensions, dry weigth and AFDW of tissues and shells.
I hope to find something different in the biometric measures of these three population but I don't think to obtain enough information to understand the cause of these erosion.
Thanks for your help
Regards
Daniele
Hi Daniele,
Can you say whether the Corbicula with eroded shells have a different AFDW (as a proportion of DW) from those in the other two streams? That would mean less organic matter in the shell material. Following the paper by Araujo et al., that could be associated with a difference in the pH of the streams. They suggest that shells from alkaline waters have less organic material, so they would be more vulnerable to abrasion. Alternatively there might be a difference in sediment particle size (if they are burrowing).
Keith
Thank you for your suggestion Keith.
pH values (of water and sediment) was my first hypothesys but all three streams had the same values. Then I tried with calcium in the water but, also in this case, it was the same in all the streams.
The only difference beetween streams that we had found is the presence of fungal species that can cause variuos problem in birds, reptiles and also mammals but we are not shure that would be the cause of the shells erosion.
We'll continue with biometric measures and we'll see...
Thank you for sharing your ideas
Daniele
Hi Daniele,
I just share my experience that we've observed the eroded shell of the mud clam Polymesoda erosa and P. expansa which we've found in mangrove area . In our case we think about the pH of this ecosystem, since in the mangrove are the pH is acid (around 5).
Best regards,
Ita
thank you.
My first option was pH values but both water and sediment had pH values around 7.
Now, we are looking for other possible causes
Regards
Daniele
- Badges
- Science method
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Ecology