Patella ferruginea Gmelin1791 affinity with new-construction artificial breakwaters: two examples in Melilla and Chafarinas Islands
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1
Universidad de Granada, Zoología, Spain
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2
Ciudad Autónoma de Melilla, Spain
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3
Universidad de Granada, Química Inorgánica, Spain
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4
Consejería Sanidad Melilla, Spain
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5
Consejería Medio Ambiente Melilla, Spain
Patella ferruginea (Mollusca, Gastropoda) is the marine invertebrate with the highest protective status in the Spanish coasts: “it is an endangered species” since 1999 in the Spanish Catalogue of Endangered Species. Therefore, according to the Law 42/2007 of the Natural Heritage and Biodiversity, the Ministry of Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs developed the “Strategy of Conservation of the ferruginea limpet (Patella ferruginea) in Spain ” in 2008.
With open coast, clear and beaten water, it may perhaps seems paradoxical the appearance of an increasing number of new examples that illustrate the affinity in the recruitment of Patella ferruginea grubs by breakwaters and artificial dikes near human activity, mostly in those built in the so-called “critical areas” in the Strategy, where the neighbouring matrix populations are breeding grubs.
From that stated above, we show the results of the colonization through two recent examples: the breakwater of Muelle Chico from Isabel II Island (Chafarinas) and the one from Horcas Coloradas in the cliffy coast of Melilla. The former, which was built in August 2013, with 40 m length, formed by small natural heterogeneous blocks of rough surface, and the latter, from 2008, with 820 linear metres, with big prismatic blocks of concrete with flat surface. Hence, in April 2016, and being known the annual breeding cycle, the breakwater of Muelle Chico has received three autumnal waves of larvae, while the one from Horcas Coloradas has already suffer the eighth one, in other words, the older specimens are 2,5 years old in the first case and 7,5 in the second one. Both have been continuously monitored since they were built, with quarterly counts and measurements.
The breakwater of Muelle Chico restored another area that was totally damaged, which residual rocks with good populations of Patella ferruginea were moved to an adjacent areain an attempt to mitigate the impact of the works. From July 2013 we have monitored the populations that were on the rocks moved, which first results were shown at the XVIII SIEBM held in Gijón (Spain).Now, after almost three years, we have to conclude due to the scarce survival of adults, 17% (36 out of 211 starting number of specimens) and the impossibility of new colonisations because of the general sinking or the fractures and displacements suffered by the rocks moved. In return, on the new breakwater the population has been annually increasing, being currently in a number close to 200 specimens.
The construction of the breakwater of Horcas Coloradas in Melilla by the Ministry of Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs in 2008 has meant the loss of a number of specimens between 700 and 1000. Nowadays, despite the fact of being a relatively far area, around 1 km in both cases, from the big breeding focuses of the coast of Melilla, ZEC of Aguadú (4000 specimens) and the breakwater of NE pier in the commercial port (3000 specimens), the population rises to a number higher than 250 specimens.
In the document we reeled off all the information, both of the result of the movement, with hypothesis about the causes and proposals for the improvement, and of the new colonisations, according to the chronologic development and diverse anthropogenic and environmental factors that, undoubtedly, have influenced them.
Keywords:
Breakwaters,
Artificial,
Patella,
ferruginea,
Melilla
Conference:
XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies, Porto, Portugal, 5 Sep - 9 Sep, 2016.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
1. ECOLOGY, BIODIVERSITY AND VULNERABLE ECOSYSTEMS
Citation:
Juan Antonio
GG,
Pedro
PR,
Carmen
EM,
Isidoro
BD and
Paola
CL
(2016). Patella ferruginea Gmelin1791 affinity with new-construction artificial breakwaters: two examples in Melilla and Chafarinas Islands.
Front. Mar. Sci.
Conference Abstract:
XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies.
doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2016.05.00034
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Received:
28 Apr 2016;
Published Online:
02 Sep 2016.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. González G Juan Antonio, Universidad de Granada, Zoología, Melilla, Spain, jagg@ugr.es