Soil calcium availability influences shell ecophenotype formation in the sub-antarctic land snail, Notodiscus hookeri.

ABSTRACT: Ecophenotypes reflect local matches between organisms and their environment, and show plasticity across generations in response to current living conditions. Plastic responses in shell morphology and shell growth have been widely studied in gastropods and are often related to environmental calcium availability, which influences shell biomineralisation. To date, all of these studies have overlooked micro-scale structure of the shell, in addition to how it is related to species responses in the context of environmental pressure. This study is the first to demonstrate that environmental factors induce a bi-modal variation in the shell micro-scale structure of a land gastropod. Notodiscus hookeri is the only native land snail present in the Crozet Archipelago (sub-Antarctic region). The adults

SUBMITTER: Charrier M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3869943 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature