Search

The Northwest Atlantic bamboo worm Clymenella torquata, believed to have been imported with commercial oyster culture, was last formally reported from the American Pacific coast more than 30 years ago from a single location. We report here that it is broadly distributed in British Columbia and is now established in Washington. In Samish Bay, Washington, this tubiculous infaunal worm creates a spongy, porous substrate that has proved detrimental to commercial oyster farms by causing the oysters to sink into the sediment and suffocate. Little is known about the ecological or economic impacts of this invasion in the Pacific Northwest.

To address the functional contributions of capillary chaetae in the maldanid polychaete Clymenella torquata, we compared irrigation efficiency and tube structure for animals with intact and trimmed capillary chaetae. We measured pumping rates for worms before and after they were anaesthetized and subjected either to capillary trimming or mock trimming, i.e. handling without trimming. Worms with trimmed chaetae were significantly less effective at moving water through their tubes than those with intact chaetae. There were no significant differences in the ability of control worms to move water within their tubes. No significant changes in rates of peristalsis were observed among experimental or control groups. These data strongly suggest that body musculature and capillary chaetae work in concert to hold worms in position within tubes during peristaltic pumping. When chaetae are shortened, the body musculature must contract to a greater degree, increasing the functional diameter of the worm to achieve the necessary traction with the tube wall, resulting in less efficient irrigation. We also compared the inner diameters of original field tubes to tubes built by control worms or worms after capillary trimming. The inner diameters of new tubes built by worms with shortened chaetae were larger than their original tubes, while those of both control groups were not. One possible explanation is that the chaetae have a sensory role and shortened chaetae send the false message that the nascent tube walls are farther away than they are, the body contracts in compensation and the tube is widened, however this idea has not been tested.

Many investigators demonstrate the existence of intra- and interspecific interactions through rigorous statistical hypothesis testing. Statistical significance of an interaction, however, does not necessarily imply that it controls a species population size or distribution. Other analytical methods must be used to make these important determinations. This paper demonstrates one method, with an example, to quantify the demographic importance of statistically significant interactions. In our example, some of the statistically significant interactions with the polychaete Clymenella torquata (Leidy) have large impacts on the population growth rate of the bivalve Gemma gemma (Totten), while others do not. This demonstrates the necessity of distinguishing between statistical significance and demographic importance. In some cases, the demographic importance of the same interaction changes through time because of changes in the bivalve's life history. Interactions affecting juvenile bivalves often have a greater demographic importance than those affecting adults; but this is not always the case.

The resistance to high temperatures of two species of intertidal tube-dwelling polychaete worms has been tested to show seasonal and geographic variations. The summer 50% survival temperature at Beaufort, North Carolina, was 42.5 °C for Diopatra cuprea (Bosc) and 40.5 °C for Clymenella torquata (Leidy). Winter 50% survival temperatures for both species at Beaufort were approximately 4.0 C° lower. Both species showed a geographic difference in 50% survival temperature of more than 4.0 C° between North Carolina and Massachusetts in summer. D. cuprea from the Mississippi coast showed a lower survival temperature, probably due to combined temperature and salinity effects. Laboratory acclimation of C. torquata from Beaufort at low temperatures, during summer months, produced experimental results similar to those from winter animals. The seasonal differences in temperature tolerance are phenotypic expressions of a physiological response which can be related to environmental temperature patterns.

THE tubiculous Maldanid polychaetes are among the most abundant infaunal components of intertidal and sub-tidal bottom communities of the North American Atlantic coast. Within their respective ranges the two species Clymenella torquata Leidy and Axiothella mucosa Andrews show a striking dichromatism: populations may be either green or orange. A population inhabiting a particular microgeographic area is always consistent, although the distance over which a colour change occurs may be only a few miles. Continuous intergraduations do not occur. A third closely related species, Euclymene collaris Claparede, does not undergo the colour change; it exists only in the orange form even where it is sympatric with the green forms of the first two. Table 1 lists the colour of populations found at each of seven macrogeographical locations sampled by me.