Relationship Between Intertidal Zonation and Littorina littorea.

Gianni Sutaniman

California Polytechnic University Pomona, Pomona, California 91768

Abstract

Intertidal zones are environments where marine and terrestrial ecosystems meet. There are a

variety of marine organisms that are present in this habitat. The distribution and abundance of

these organisms are dictated by the different gradients present in intertidal zones. The focal

organism that was studied was Littorina littorea, the periwinkle. Using data collection and

statistical tests, it can be observed that the population of periwinkles are affected by Both

environmental factors such as tidal activities and biological interactions with other organisms.

Introduction

Intertidal zones are areas in between marine and terrestrial ecosystems. This type of

environment is dictated by the daily cycles of tides. Lower intertidal zone is exposed only

during low tides and marine organisms dominate this community. Organisms living here are

defined by environmental factors such as desiccation and high temperature. For example,

abundance of periwinkles is affected by wave exposure, rugosity. (Carlson et al. 2006).

Populations of periwinkle that live in the lower zonation are more affected by predator

density and amount of green algae (Carlson et al. 2006). The focal species of this experiment

is the periwinkle (Littorina littorea). These organisms are grazers that belong to the phylum

mollusca and class gastropoda. They have vestigial internal shell and foot.

Our hypothesis is that there is an association between periwinkle, limpet populations

and periwinkle, anemone populations. There is also a relationship between periwinkle and

limpet populations. The small space in intertidal habitats promotes competition between

species and causes limited adaptations or may favor a single intermediate phenotype (Hays

2007). We also hypothesized that there is a relationship between periwinkle populations and

water coverage, and periwinkle populations with intertidal gradient. Influence of

environmental gradients also affects the community structure and diversity in intertidal

habitats (Gingold et al. 2010).

Methods

We conducted the observations and data collection in Spring 2011 in lower intertidal

Crescent Bay in Laguna Beach. Firstly, a 50 m rope that acts as a baseline was placed along

the north side of the study site, beginning at the upper intertidal zone and continues down to

the lower zone. At the baseline distance, we laid out a 25 foot transect perpendicular to the

baseline and used this area for our data collection. We used a random numbers table to obtain

a random distance from the baseline. In each plot we estimated the percentage of the plot that

is covered by water and recorded the data. For the organisms in the first 10 rows of the data

sheet, we observed and estimated the percent cover within the plot and recorded the data. We

used the small discs that are provided to estimate percent cover for these organisms. For the

remaining organisms, we counted the number of organisms of each taxon in the plot and

recorded the data.

For the data analysis procedure, we used Microsoft excel and StatCat. First we did a

normality test for our focal organism, which was the periwinkle. The normality test showed

that our focal organism’s distribution was not normal. Therefore, it can be assumed that our

other two organisms are also not normal. For the periwinkle and limpets, we did a

contingency table. Because our contingency is a 2x2 table and had a degree of freedom of 1,
we used the Yates correction. From this, we acquired Chi-squared c (χ²c) and the p-value.

The same test was used for periwinkles and anemones. The spearman rank correlation was

used for periwinkles and limpets. We repeated the procedure for the correlation between

periwinkles and water cover. The last statistical test we used was a regression correlation

between periwinkles and intertidal gradient. We used StatCat to obtain the F value and p-

value.

Results

Figure 1. Relationship of number of periwinkles along the gradient of lower intertidal in

crescent bay.

Results showed that the alternative hypothesis was accepted using a contingency table

between periwinkle and limpet populations (χ²c = 9.340, p=0.0022), but rejected for

periwinkle and anemone (χ²c =1.692, p= 0.1933). The results also showed that there is a

difference between: populations of periwinkle and limpets (rs = 0.4159, p=0.0001),

periwinkle and water cover (rs = 0.2338, p=0.0373), and periwinkle and intertidal gradient

(F=11.9134, p=0.0027).

Discussion

It can be observed that the tidal activity in the upper intertidal environment directly

affects the distribution and abundance of organisms such as periwinkles, limpets, and

anemone. Based on our results, there is a very strong correlation between intertidal gradient

and the distribution of marine organisms. Our results supported our hypothesis that there was

an association between the densities of periwinkles and limpets. However, our result showed

a negative association between periwinkles and anemones. Our hypothesis was supported that

there was a difference between periwinkles and limpets populations. There was also a

difference between periwinkles and water coverage. Populations of periwinkles are dictated

by the emersion time in water (Hays, 2007). Our last hypothesis was also supported that there

is a difference between periwinkles and intertidal gradient. Intertidal zonation promotes

diversity by compartmentalization and highlighting the importance of microhabitats in an

ecosystem (Gingold et al., 2010).

This study is important to see the effects of organisms living in intertidal habitats.

The study can be useful in correlating the effect of climate changes to marine ecosystems. An

increased in global warming causes an increase in sea water levels and temperature in

intertidal habitats. For example, organisms that usually live in drier environment are now

experiencing more water coverage. Another factor is the explosion of a certain population of

an organism in the ecosystem. An increase in temperature results in the increase in limpet

populations by increasing their reproductive rate and extending the reproduction period

(Moore et al. 2011). In conclusion, it is important to monitor the distribution and abundance

of organisms to maintain a balanced ecosystem.

Work Cited

Carlson, R., M. Shulman, & J. Ellis. 2006. The Journal of Molluscan Studies 72: 211.

Gingold, R., M. Mundo, & O. Holovachov. 2010. The role of habitat heterogeneity in

structuring the community of intertidal free-living marine nematodes. Marine Biology 157:

1741.

Hays, C. 2007. Adaptive phenotypic differentiation across the intertidal gradient in the alga

silvetia compressa. Ecology. 88: 149.

Moore, P., R. Thompson, & S. Hawkins. 2011 Phenological changes in intertidal

con0specific gastropoda in response to climate warning. Global Change Biology 17: 709.