Abstract:
Introduction. In the past thirty years studies of community and
population ecology of marine soft-shore invertebrates have
increased, both in number and in depth, A good knowledge is
building up of the interactions of benthic invertebrates with their physical and biotic environments. (Boughey, 1967; Green,
1968; Nancock and Simpson, 1962;)
This thesis examines the ecology, population dynamics,
and energetics of some common intertidals soft-shore molluscs,
having particular concern with the range of variation that is possible in one parameter for different populations of the same species. Similar work has not been frequently
attempted for molluscs, although there is some information available from syntheses of the work of different authors on the same species.(Bullock, 1955; Dehnel, 1955; Fretter and Graham, 1962; Hyman, 1967 ; Prosser , 1955; Wilbur and Yonge,
1966;) Most authors have concentrated either on the ecology of a species, or on the population dynamics of one population, or perhaps on the influence of one environmental factor, such as temperature, on one parameter, such as growth rate; rarely has there been a study of the interaction of several environmental factors with several population parameters .
(Wilbur and Owen, 1964;)
