New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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Morphometric variation in Haliotis iris (Mollusca:Gastropoda): analysis of 61 populations

PAUL E. McSHANE
DAVID R. SCHIEL*
STEVE F. MERCER
TALBOT MURRAY

Fisheries Research Centre
MAF Fisheries
Greta Point
P.O. Box 297
Wellington, New Zealand

*Present address, Zoology Dept, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Abstract  Relationships of shell height, shell width, shell weight, foot weight, dry foot weight, and total weight were examined with shell length for Haliotis iris from different localities. Mean length varied among 61 localities explaining more than 70% of the variation in the other parameters which covaried with length. Significant sources of variation in mean length included latitude (sea surface temperature) and relative exposure. Variation in all morphometric parameters occurred among localities but such variation, although significant, was generally not large (< 10 % of mean values). Although the spatial scales examined included 100s of km, the largest morphometric variation shown was between neighboring localities (200 m apart). This and the high residual variation in any morphometric parameter for H. iris from any location indicated that morphometric variation occurred over small spatial scales. The suggestion that some localities of H. iris were "stunted" with small average lengths and had individuals with relatively peaked shells and greater weights compared with those from other localities, was not supported by our results.

Keywords  abalone; Haliotis iris; morphometric variation; populations; growth; New Zealand

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 1994: Vol. 28: 357-364

0028-8330/94/2804-0357 $2.50/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand 1994

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (2128K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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