Spatial analysis and abundance estimation of the southernmost population of purple clam, Amiantis purpurata in Patagonia (Argentina)

Abstract

Spatial distribution of the southernmost population of the purple clam, Amiantis purpurata (Bivalvia: Veneridae), was described from systematic survey data (density and local biomass), and was related to environmental variables (depth and sediment). Geostatistical techniques were used to model and map density, and to estimate absolute biomass.Spatial distribution was highly contagious: half of the population lives at densities up to 240 clams m−2. Higher clam abundance occur only at sites with finer and well sorted sediment and intermediate depth. Even when the demographic structure of the population was composed of three year-classes recruited between 1978 and 1980, local biomass and density exhibited a non-linear relationship between them, and discrepancies between their distributions of frequency, their relationship with depth, and variographic analysis.The spherical model was fitted to the experimental variograms. Anisotropy was explored and introduced into the model. The resulting map shows the location and extension of the patches in the study area; they conform a fringe where the highest concentrations are oriented parallel to the coast line, interrupted by small shoals. No anisotropism was evident in the variographic analysis of local biomass. The kriged mean was 3369 g m−2; and estimated total biomass was 53,290 tn.Such differences between density and local biomass seem to be linked to compensatory processes involving biomass, growth and mortality, originated at the scale of individual overlapping neighbourhoods.