Spat availability of commercial bivalve species recruited on artificial collectors from the northern Gulf of California. Seasonal changes in species composition

Abstract

This study reports a year-round recruitment of spat of four commercial bivalve species; Pteria sterna, Euvola vogdesi, Pinctada mazatlanica and Pinna rugosa collected in the region of Puerto Peñasco, north-eastern coast of the Gulf of California. Bimonthly recruitment of commercial bivalve spat on netlon® collectors was evaluated for six sites from June 2007 to August 2008. To describe spat recruitment abundances with environmental parameters, sea surface temperature (°C) and surface chlorophyll a concentration (mg m−3) were characterized by means of monthly Aqua/MODIS satellite data. For each species a repeated measures anova was used to evaluate differences in the number of spat between months, sites and depths. Maximum sea surface temperature was recorded in August–September (~31.5°C) and the minimum in January–February (~15°C), while the minimum surface chlorophyll a was observed in June–September (mean range = 1.5–2 mg m−3) and the maximum in January–March (mean range = 2–5 mg m−3). Spat recruitment showed distinct patterns; P. sterna can be characterized as having a Winter–Spring pattern, E. vogdesi a winter pattern, while P. mazatlanica and P. rugosa a summer spat recruitment pattern. This information constitutes part of the fundamental data needed for the development of aquaculture and conservation initiatives in the region based on wild spat supply.