Responses of settling invertebrate larvae to bioorganic films: effects of different types of films

Abstract

Larvae of benthic invertebrates are exposed to a variety of chemical cues, many of biological origin, as they near a potential settlement surface. One such cue is the bioorganic film that covers many surfaces, and some laboratory evidence suggests that larvae respond to the presence or absence of such films. Our earlier work has shown that, at two field sites in southeastern Australia, a variety of species recruit at higher densities to substrata bearing such a film, and here we begin to determine the specificity of those responses. Experimental substrata were prepared with films developing in laboratory aquaria and under field conditions for 7 days. These substrata were then exposed in the ..