What Can We Learn From Confusing Olivella Columellaris And O. Semistriata, Two Key Species In Panamic Sandy Beach Ecosystems?, Alison Troost, Samantha Rupert, Ariel Cyrus, Frank Paladino, Benjamin Dattilo, Winfried Peters
Jun 2012
What Can We Learn From Confusing Olivella Columellaris And O. Semistriata, Two Key Species In Panamic Sandy Beach Ecosystems?, Alison Troost, Samantha Rupert, Ariel Cyrus, Frank Paladino, Benjamin Dattilo, Winfried Peters
Winfried S. Peters
Olivella columellaris (Sowerby 1825) and O. semistriata (Gray 1839) are suspension feeding, swash surfing snails on tropical sandy beaches of the east Pacific. While they often are the numerically dominant macrofaunal element in their habitats, their biology is poorly understood; the two species actually have been confused in all of the few publications that address their ecology. Frequent misidentifications in publications and collections contributed also to an overestimation of the geographic overlap of the two species. To provide a sound taxonomic basis for further functional, ecological, and evolutionary investigations, we evaluated the validity of diagnostic traits in wild populations and …
The Behavioural And Sensory Ecology Of Agaronia Propatula (Caenogastropoda, Olividae), A Swash-Surfing Predator On Sandy Beaches Of The Panamic Faunal Province, Ariel Cyrus, Samantha Rupert, Amy Silva, Monika Graf, Jeremy Rappaport, Frank Paladino, Winfried Peters
Mar 2012
The Behavioural And Sensory Ecology Of Agaronia Propatula (Caenogastropoda, Olividae), A Swash-Surfing Predator On Sandy Beaches Of The Panamic Faunal Province, Ariel Cyrus, Samantha Rupert, Amy Silva, Monika Graf, Jeremy Rappaport, Frank Paladino, Winfried Peters
Winfried S. Peters
The genus Agaronia includes dominant predators in the eulittoral zone of dissipative sandy beaches of the tropical Eastern Pacific, which show specific adaptations to this environment such as swash-surfing locomotion. We studied A. propatula in its natural habitat in El Salvador and Costa Rica, and performed field experiments to obtain insights into its ecology, behaviour and sensory physiology. Agaronia propatula is not attracted by carrion and preys mostly on the ubiquitous beach snail Olivella semistriata. This, however, reflects community composition rather than prey specialization; A. propatula is an investigative hunter and will, quite literally, attack everything that moves (with …
Forisome Performance In Artificial Sieve Tubes, Michael Knoblauch, Mike Stubenrauch, Aart J.E. Van Bel, Winfried S. Peters
Mar 2012
Forisome Performance In Artificial Sieve Tubes, Michael Knoblauch, Mike Stubenrauch, Aart J.E. Van Bel, Winfried S. Peters
Winfried S. Peters
In the legume phloem, sieve element occlusion (SEO) proteins assemble into Ca2+-dependent contractile bodies. These forisomes presumably control phloem transport by forming reversible sieve tube plugs. This function, however, has never been directly demonstrated, and appears questionable as forisomes were reported to be too small to plug sieve tubes, and failed to block flow efficiently in artificial microchannels. Moreover, plugs of SEO-related proteins in Arabidopsis sieve tubes do not affect phloem translocation. We improved existing procedures for forisome isolation and storage, and found that the degree of Ca2+-driven deformation that is possible in forisomes of Vicia faba, the standard …
