Grazing Intensity and Reproductive Behaviour of Turbo intercostalis Menke, 1846 in a Seaweed Dominated Intertidal Rocky Ecosystem, Southwest Coast of India

Fasila, P and Vinod, K and Asokan, P K (2025) Grazing Intensity and Reproductive Behaviour of Turbo intercostalis Menke, 1846 in a Seaweed Dominated Intertidal Rocky Ecosystem, Southwest Coast of India. Thalassas: An International Journal of Marine Sciences, 41 (258). pp. 1-12. ISSN 2366-1674

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Abstract

Turbo intercostalis Menke, 1846, a herbivorous gastropod species under the family Turbinidae is one of the major macroalgal grazer gastropod species abundant in the eulittoral zone and larger relative to other gastropod species. This study was carried out over two years from 2020 to 2022 at the Thikkodi rocky intertidal area, the southwest coast of India. A significant difference was observed in seasonal variation of grazing intensity (ANOSIM global test. r = 0.739, p = 0.01). The availability of preferred seaweed species in the habitat influenced the gut composition of this species in a particular season. T. intercostalis preferred red algal species such as Chondracanthus acicularis (Roth) Fredericq, 1993 and Gelidium pusillum (Stackhouse) Le Jolis, 1863 and were found throughout the study period. However, early successional seaweed species such as Ulva spp. and Cladophora vagabunda (Linnaeus) Hoek, 1963 were preferentially grazed during monsoon period. The stages of gonadal development have been found to have a major influence on the grazing intensity of T. intercostalis. The highest grazing activity is mostly during the time of early developmental stage of gonads during pre-monsoon and with increase in the late development and ripeness of gonads, grazing intensity gradually slows down and peak reduction in the grazing intensity occurs at the time of the peak spawning period.

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