New tool to elucidate the diet of the ormer Haliotis tuberculata (L.): Digital shell color analysis
- 225 Downloads
Food sources of the European abalone Haliotis tuberculata throughout its life cycle are still to be clarified in nature. A novel non-destructive method of digital shell color analysis to reveal the diets of European abalone (ormer) was developed in this study. The method was calibrated using ormers reared under experimental conditions in North Western Brittany in 2012 and fed a controlled monospecific diet to define the shell hues associated with various macroalgae (i.e., Rhodophyta, Chlorophyta, and Phaeophyta). General food preferences were established by comparing the shell hue of wild adult ormers and experimental adult ormers. Shell hue corresponds to the color tint in the HSL color space measured on digital pictures of the shell. Experimentally, shell hue values differed according to treatment, with the most yellow-green hue (72°) for ormers fed Saccharina sp. and the coral hue (25°) for ormers fed Palmaria palmata. High variation in shell color of wild ormers was observed according to the sampling site and/or ontogeny. The diet of wild ormers may be related to the abundance of different drifting algae in their respective habitats. Thus, this non-destructive and easy-to-use technique appears to be a promising tool for determining the diet of Haliotis species and, perhaps, other herbivorous mollusks.
KeywordsNumerical color Shell hue HSL color space Abalone Food sources Experiment
We thank the team at the France Haliotis hatchery and their interns for the care of the animals and assistance during the experiment. Many thanks to all of the people who contributed to sampling macroalgae on foreshore. The authors also thank the scuba divers for sampling wild abalones, and Sylvain Huchette for contributing to this experiment and his feedback. We would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.
Compliance with ethical standards
The project was supported by the National Research Agency, French Government, with regard to investment expenditure program PIA-ANR IDEALG BTBR-10-04 and the CHIVAS (ANR-Blanc) program. V. Marchais was supported by a doctoral grant from the Université de Bretagne Occidentale. All applicable international and national guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.
Conflict of interest
Authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
- Caron L, Douady D, De Martino A, Quinet M (2001) Light harvesting in brown algae. Cah Biol 42:109–124Google Scholar
- Clavier J, Richard O (1982) Etude expérimentale du déplacement de l’ormeau (Haliotis tuberculata) dans le milieu naturel. Rev Trav Inst Pêch Marit 46:315–326.Google Scholar
- Emmery A, Lefebvre S, Alunno-Bruscia M, Kooijman S (2011) Understanding the dynamics of δ13C and δ15N in soft tissues of the bivalve Crassostrea gigas facing environmental fluctuations in the context of Dynamic Energy Budgets (DEB). J Sea Res 66:361–371. doi: 10.1016/j.seares.2011.08.002 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Gonzalez RC, Woods RE (2008) Color image processing. In: Gonzalez RC, Woods RE (eds) Digital image processing, 3rd edn. Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey, pp 394–460Google Scholar
- Jeffrey SW, Mantoura RFC, Wright SW (1997) Phytoplankton pigments in oceanography: guidelines to modern methods. UNESCO, ParisGoogle Scholar
- Kawamura T, Takami H (1995) Analysis of feeding and growth rate of newly metamorphosed abalone Haliotis discus hannai fed on four species of benthic diatom. Fish Sci 61:357–358.Google Scholar
- Kawamura T, Roberts RD, Takami H (1998) A review of the feeding and growth of postlarval abalone. J Shellfish Res 17:615–625Google Scholar
- Koike Y (1978) Biological and ecological studies on the propagation of the ormer, Haliotis tuberculata Linnaeus. I. Larval development and growth of juveniles. La mer 16:124–136Google Scholar
- Leighton DL (1961) Observations of the effect of diet on shell coloration in the red abalone, Haliotis rufescens Swainson. Veliger 4:29–32.Google Scholar
- Mai K, Mercer JP, Donlon J (1996) Comparative studies on the nutrition of two species of abalone, Haliotis tuberculata L. and Haliotis discus hannai Ino. V. The role of polyunsaturated fatty acids of macroalgae in abalone nutrition. Aquaculture 139:77–89. doi: 10.1016/0044-8486(95)01158-7 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Mercer JP, Mai K-S, Donlon J (1993) Comparative studies on the nutrition of two species of abalone, Haliotis tuberculata Linnaeus and Haliotis discus hannai Ino I. Effects of algal diets on growth and biochemical composition. Invertebr Reprod Dev 23:75–88. doi: 10.1080/07924259.1993.9672298 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Mgaya YD (1995) Synopsis of biological data on the European abalone (ormer), Haliotis tuberculata Linnaeus, 1758 (Gastropoda: Haliotidae). Food and agriculture organisation of the United Nations, RomeGoogle Scholar
- Nash CE (1991) The production of abalone. In: Nash CE (ed) Production of aquatic animals: crustaceans, molluscs, amphibians and reptiles. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 173–181Google Scholar
- Olsen DA (1968a) Banding patterns in Haliotis rufescens. II. Some behavioral considerations and the effect of diet on shell coloration for Haliotis rufescens, Haliotis corrugata, Haliotis sorenseni, and Haliotis assimilis. Veliger 11:135–139.Google Scholar
- Onitsuka T, Kawamura T, Ohashi S et al (2004) Morphological changes in the radula of abalone Haliotis diversicolor aquatilis from post-larva to adult. J Shellfish Res 23:1079–1086Google Scholar
- R Core Team (2015) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, ViennaGoogle Scholar
- Shepherd SA, Steinberg PD (1992) Food preferences of three Australian abalone species with a review of the algal food of abalone. In: Shepherd SA, Tegner MJ, Guzmand del Proo SA (eds) Abalone of the world: biology, fisheries and culture. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, pp 169–181Google Scholar
- Travis D (1991) Effective color displays. Theory and practice. Academic press, LondonGoogle Scholar