Welcome to Chinese Journal of Ecology! Today is Share:

cje

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Composition and distribution pattern of Littorinid snails in young rehabilitated mangroves.

CHEN Shun-yang1, CHEN Bin1, LIAO Jian-ji1, CHEN Gan-lin1, HUANG Yan2, CHEN Guang-cheng1*#br#   

  1. (1Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Xiamen 361005, Fujian, China; 2College of Science, Shantou University, Shantou 515000, Guangdong, China).
  • Online:2017-02-10 Published:2017-02-10

Abstract: Littorinid snails are common benthos in mangrove forests; their morphology, behavior and distribution characteristics are closely related to the vegetations. In this study, the composition and distribution patterns of Littorinid snails were investigated at rehabilitated mangroves under early stage (3 years old); their variations with the tidal elevation and mangrove species were also studied. The results showed that Littorinid snails numerously occurred at the young mangrove forests, with a high density up to 32.67 ind·m-2. Littoraria melanostoma was the dominant species in Kandelia obovata and Aegiceras corniculatum forests. The density and biomass of L. melanostoma was higher at the K. obovata forest with a tidal elevation of 1.8 m than those planted at 2.2 and 2.6 m. L. scabra was not collected at the forest with 2.2  and 2.6 m tidal elevations. The L. melanostoma snails at an A. corniculatum forest planted under a tidal elevation of 1.6 m had higher density and biomass than the K. obovata forest with the same tidal elevation, while their body size was smaller at the A. corniculatum forest. Neither the abundance nor the body size of L. scabra snail was different between the two mangrove species. These differences in the composition and distribution pattern of Littorinid snails may be owing to the different physicalenvironmental conditions resulted from the different morphology of mangrove vegetation, and the biological characteristics of the snails, such as the movement habit and the propagation pattern.