Biol. Bull.
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Biol. Bull. 206: 121-124. (June 2004)
© 2004 Marine Biological Laboratory

Limits to Phenotypic Plasticity: Flow Effects on Barnacle Feeding Appendages

Natasha K. Li* and Mark W. Denny

Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, Pacific Grove, California 93950

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Present address: American Institute of Mathematics, 360 Portage Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94305. E-mail: nkli{at}stanfordalumni.org

Phenotypic plasticity, the capacity of a given genotype to produce differing morphologies in response to the environment, is widespread among marine organisms (1). For example, acorn barnacles feed by extending specialized appendages (the cirral legs) into flow, and the length of the cirri is plastic: the higher the velocity, the shorter the feeding legs (2,3). However, this effect has been explored only for flows less than 4.6 m/s, slow compared to typical flows measured at sites on wave-exposed shores. What happens at faster speeds? Leg lengths of Balanus glandula Darwin, 1854, an acorn barnacle, were measured at 15 sites in Monterey, California, across flows ranging from 0.5 to 14.0 m/s. Similar to previous findings, a plastic response in leg length was noted for the four sites with water velocities less than 3 m/s. However, no plastic response was present at the 11 sites exposed to faster velocities, despite a 4-fold variation in speed. We conclude that the velocity at which the plastic response occurs has an upper limit of 2–4 m/s, a velocity commonly exceeded within the typical habitat of this species.

Abbreviations: ADM, average daily maximum • ANCOVA, analysis of covariance • HMS, Hopkins Marine Station • MLLW, mean lower low water • OM, overall maximum




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