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Life-history and demographic spatial variation in Mediterranean populations of the opportunistic polychaete Ophryotrocha labronica (Polychaeta, Dorvilleidae)

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Abstract

The spatial scale of life-history and demographic variation was investigated in the opportunistic polychaete Ophryotrocha labronica La Greca and Bacci. Individuals were collected along the Italian coasts from three thermally different biogeographical regions of the Mediterranean Sea. For each region, populations from four harbours were considered, and for each harbour, two sites were examined. Life-history and demographic traits were investigated after one generation under a common garden experiment, and their variation at the three spatial scales was assessed. All the traits showed high variability with regard to site. A number of life-history and all demographic traits also varied according to the biogeographical region. Conversely, no differences were found between harbours, suggesting that geographical isolation did not contribute to phenotypic variation. Results confirmed the central role of local conditions for the evolution of life history in species colonizing heterogeneous environments, but they also pointed to the importance of large-scale factors in shaping the phenotypic responses of O. labronica, demonstrating the need for a multi-scale approach for obtaining a good measure of natural variation in widespread opportunistic species.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the national PRIN 2005 project (prot. 2005050952), funded by the Ministero dell’Istruzione Università e Ricerca. Thanks are due to the many students and collaborators for their assistance in the field and laboratory activities, especially Francesco Graziosi, Valentina Grandi, Roberto Bellesia and Fabrizio Greco. The authors thank Dr. Katie Henry for English language revision.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Via Campi 213/d, 41125, Modena, Italy

    Gloria Massamba-N’Siala, Roberto Simonini & Daniela Prevedelli

  2. Dipartimento di Biologia, Unità di Biologia Marina e Ecologia, Università di Pisa, Via Derna 1, 56126, Pisa, Italy

    Piero Cossu, Ferruccio Maltagliati & Alberto Castelli

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  1. Gloria Massamba-N’Siala
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  2. Roberto Simonini
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Correspondence to Gloria Massamba-N’Siala.

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Communicated by F. Bulleri.

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Massamba-N’Siala, G., Simonini, R., Cossu, P. et al. Life-history and demographic spatial variation in Mediterranean populations of the opportunistic polychaete Ophryotrocha labronica (Polychaeta, Dorvilleidae). Mar Biol 158, 1523–1535 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-011-1668-9

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