Effect of mussel density and size on the morphology of blue mussels ( Mytilus edulis) grown in suspended culture in Prince Edward Island, Canada

Mussels usually exhibit morphological variations in response to their environment. We conducted two field experiments in which we assessed the effect of mussel density and size on the morphology of blue mussels ( Mytilus edulis) grown in suspended culture using longlines. Morphological measurements...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Aquaculture 2005-09, Vol.249 (1), p.265-274
Main Authors: Lauzon-Guay, Jean-Sébastien, Hamilton, Diana J., Barbeau, Myriam A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Allometry
Animal aquaculture
animal morphology
Animal populations
Animal productions
Aquaculture
Biological and medical sciences
Blue mussels
body size
Comparative analysis
Density
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Invertebrates
Marine
mollusc culture
Mollusca
Mollusks
Morphology
mussels
Mytilus edulis
Population density
Size
Suspended aquaculture
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Mussels usually exhibit morphological variations in response to their environment. We conducted two field experiments in which we assessed the effect of mussel density and size on the morphology of blue mussels ( Mytilus edulis) grown in suspended culture using longlines. Morphological measurements were taken over two and a half years on mussels reared at different initial densities (ranging from 100 to 800 mussels per 30 cm of sock) at two sites in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Generally, growing density of mussels did not have an effect on shell width, shell height or tissue-to-shell ratio. However, in some instances, mussels became narrower (reduced shell width-to-length ratio) and had a lower tissue-to-shell ratio at high density. The effect of mussel size (measured as shell length) was more consistent, whereby the shell width-to-length ratio increased and the shell height-to-length ratio decreased as mussels grew. The lack of density-dependent morphological plasticity and variation in tissue-to-shell ratio may be attributed to density-dependent mortality and fall-off observed in mussels reared on longlines.
ISSN:0044-8486
1873-5622
DOI:10.1016/j.aquaculture.2005.03.048