Abstract
Gaimardia bahamondei is a small gonochoric bivalve which lives attached to subtidal algae. Females brood their embryos in the suprabranchial region of the pallial cavity, in close proximity to the gill filaments. We found no significant difference in clearance rate between males (non-brooders) and females (brooders), regardless of the numbers of embryos in the brood, suggesting that the presence of embryos does not interfere with particle capture by the brooding female. Embryos did not ingest microalgae, indicating that they do not compete with the female for food during incubation. These observations contrast with published data on other brooding bivalves in which particle retention by the adult is reduced during brooding, and the embryos may capture particles suspended in the pallial cavity. These differences among bivalve taxa in the effects of brooding on physiological processes in the female are attributable to distinct morphological adaptations of the gill for brooding.
Highlights
Brooding of embryos by aquatic invertebrates often constrains behavioural and physiological processes in both adults and offspring [48]
The brooding habit is usually associated with low fecundity and large eggs [27] and the embryos are confined within the pallial cavity of the brooding adult, usually in the branchial region, e.g. Neogaimardia finlayi [32], Nutricola tantilla (=Transennella tantilla) [24, 25], Kingiella chilenica [17], Sphaerium striatinum [5], Gaimardia trapezina [22], Adacnarca nitens [21], Mysella charcoti and M. narchii [38], Neolepton salmoneum [33]
Females of G. bahamondei incubate their embryos in the suprabranchial cavity, attached to the abfrontal region of the branchial filaments and facing the water flow from the infrabranchial to the suprabranchial region
Summary
Brooding of embryos by aquatic invertebrates often constrains behavioural and physiological processes in both adults and offspring [48]. Incubation of embryos in the bivalve mantle cavity may interfere with the filtration and ventilation activity of the gill of the brooding female, with consequences for physiology and energy acquisition. These include mechanical inhibition of particle retention and ingestion [50], reduction of water transport through the marsupial gill [45, 46], interception by the embryos of some of the particles removed from suspension by the brooder [8, 10], alterations in metabolic costs due to embryo ventilation [7], cleaning of the embryos through manipulation by the labial palps of the brooding female [10, 29], or direct transfer of nutritional substances to the embryo
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