NATURE

Sea, land, river

ECONOMY

Regional

PLACE

Books+

PEOPLES

Community

HOME

Eating Diatoms

The area cleared of diatom is from a small periwinkle ‘hidden’ inside the ‘empty’ barnacle shell.

I followed several such areas expecting them to grow daily – but most remained same size – the limpets & periwinkles seem to only go a fixed distance from ‘home’

Limpet keeps a path cleared of diatoms

Diatom Covers (almost) All

	Left the diatom is in its dark or “wet” phase and covers almost everything ‘Cleaned’ barnacle shells imply a periwinkle hidden inside
	Any “cleared area” implies a grazer at work At left (in areas where the rock is showing) the finger limpets alone have the diatom on their shells
	It will take a lot more limpets to clear off the diatom from this rock face

Images at a week’s interval – little ‘new’ grazing visible

Created by LG Thursday, March 13, 2003