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Les genres Ophelia et Ampelisca de la région de Roscoff: exemples d'allotopie et de syntopie dans les communautés marines de substrat meuble = Genera Ophelia and Ampelisca in the Roscoff region: examples of allopatry and syntopy in the marine communities living in the muddy sands
Dauvin, J.-C.; Bellan-Santini, D.; Bellan, G. (1993). Les genres Ophelia et Ampelisca de la région de Roscoff: exemples d'allotopie et de syntopie dans les communautés marines de substrat meuble = Genera Ophelia and Ampelisca in the Roscoff region: examples of allopatry and syntopy in the marine communities living in the muddy sands. Cah. Biol. Mar. 34(1): 1-15
In: Cahiers de Biologie Marine. Station Biologique de Roscoff: Paris. ISSN 0007-9723; e-ISSN 2262-3094
Peer reviewed article  

Available in  Authors 
    Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee: Open access 287029 [ download pdf ]

Keyword
    Marine/Coastal

Authors  Top 
  • Dauvin, J.-C.
  • Bellan-Santini, D.
  • Bellan, G.

Abstract
    The concepts of sympatry and allopatry, of syntopy and allotopy, are the basis of the relationship between systematics and ecology. In the Roscoff region (French coasts off the British Channel), Ampelisca (Amphipoda) are present in syntopy; nine species live in the subtidal muddy sands of the Bay of Morlaix, while five species of Ophelia (polychaeta) occur in four distinct intertidal and subtidal biotopes (fine to coarse sands). Differences in reproductive strategies, food preferences or microhabitat requirements (notably "volume of life"), have often been used to explain such patterns of distribution. However we suggest that an alternative strategy may be one of evolutionary strategies related to population levels. The syntopic distribution of a genus is not a chance level. Dense populations of Ampelisca were wiped out by the oil spill from the "Amoco Cadiz" in 1978 but they re-appeared within 10 years of this pollution event, in spite of even though amphipods lack a free swimming larval stage, and the distance of non-perturbed populations of Ampelisca allowing the recolonisation.

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