Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

SS38 From Molecules to Ecosystems: A Hierarchy of Mussel Biology and Ecology (Spatial and Temporal Connections)

Date: Tuesday, February 13, 2001, Time: 11:45:00 AM

Location: Cimarron

Robles, C, D, California State University, Los Angeles, USA, crobles@CalStatLA.edu

Desharnais, R, A, California State University, Los Angeles, USA, rdeshar@CalStateLA.edu

THE MUSSEL BED PROBLEM ANALYZED IN STOCHASTIC CELLULAR AUTOMATA

The most massive and visually striking biological structures on temperate rocky seashores, beds of the mussel Mytilus californianus are also the archetypal example of a matrix forming species. A phalanx of older, larger adults overlays an assemblage of juveniles and associated species. The continuous cover of mussels has abrupt boundaries, even though the major environmental gradients of wave and tidal exposure are comparatively gradual. From wave exposed to sheltered shores, lower boundaries ascend and upper boundaries descend, so that over this horizontal gradient the vertical distributions appear wedge-shaped. The distributional aspects of mussel beds were reproduced by parameterizing basic mussel biology in a Stochastic Arena Model (SAM), a type of cellular automata. Probabilistic expressions depicted shifts in rates of prey recruitment, shell growth, and size-dependent predation over the wave and tidal exposure gradients. These trends were locally modified by spatial configurations of the size classes of the prey themselves. Spatially explicit models offer a format in which certain ecological phenomena can emerge from the underlying individual and population biology. A critique of SAM is presented.

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Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

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