Abstract
Pectinaria gouldii (Verrill), which lives for 1 year in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, constructs over its lifetime a conical tube of increasingly large sand grains, regardless of surrounding sediment characteristics. However, the rate of increase of mean grain size of the tube and the population density of the worm vary with sediment type. The distribution of this species is limited by sediment composition. Worms of equal length will always have equal anterior tube apertures, although the thickness of the tube walls may be unequal. Tube surface-area, worm dry weight, and tube weight all increase as a power function of tube length. The conical shape and increasing mass of the tube impose an upper limit to worm growth, but do not interfere with worm mobility.
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Communicated by M.R. Tripp, Newark
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Busch, D.A., Loveland, R.E. Tube-worm-sediment relationships in populations of Pectinaria gouldii (Polychaeta: Pectinariidae) from Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, USA. Marine Biology 33, 255–264 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00390930
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00390930