Líffræðifélag Íslands
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2015
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster E93
Hildur Magnúsdóttir (1,2), Snæbjörn Pálsson (1), Kristen Marie Westfall (1,3), Zophonías O. Jónsson (1) and Erla Björk Örnólfsdóttir (2)
1. Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Iceland, 2. Hólar University College, 3. Vör – Marine Research Center at Breiðafjörður, Ólafsvík
Kynnir / Presenter: Hildur Magnúsdóttir
Tengiliður / Corresponding author: Hildur Magnúsdóttir (him5@hi.is)
"Throughout the centuries the subtidal gastropod Buccinum undatum, or common whelk (IS: beitukóngur), has served both as a subject of interest for the naturalist and as a source of food and bait. The common whelk is found on both sides of the N-Atlantic Ocean and is an important predator and scavenger in many subtidal communties. Described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, it was early on known for its variability in shell morphology and several morphotypes have been recounted. Recent years have seen several life history and population genetic studies of the common whelk in different countries and in Iceland extensive studies have been done in this field in Breiðafjörður. The main results from Breiðafjörður are that whelks from different areas within the bay are genetically differentiated over distances as short as 13 km and life history traits such as growth rate, age distribution, size at sexual maturity, vary between areas. However, these new studies are lacking a description and analysis of the whelk‘s striking variation in shell morphology. In the present paper several methods are combined to form a comprehensive classification system of shell phenotypes for the common whelk in Breiðafjörður; traditional morphometrics, geometric morphometrics and shell colour analysis."