17 cm

6 mm

Kellet’s whelk, Kelletia kelletiiHabitat: Rocky reef/kelp forests. Partial migration offshore during winter?

Carnivorous predator and scavenger.

Radula at end of feeding proboscis used to drill through animal shells (e.g., snails, bivalves, etc.) and excavate concealed prey (e.g., tube worms).

Kellet’s whelk, Kelletia kelletiiPreyed upon by…

Sea otters

Lobster?

Elasmobranchs (bat ray, sharks)??

Their shell is remarkably thick!

Monterey, CA

Kellet’s whelk, Kelletia kelletiiSpring/summer breeding season.

Mating & internal fertilization.

Females lay 100+ egg capsules/year.

Capsule = 1000+ eggs.

Larvae (veliger) hatch out of capsules after 30 days.

Lecithotropic veliger in plankton for 45 days (?).

Mean Dd ~ 90 km (Siegel et al. 2003; U = 0)

Settlement cue not known.

Reproductively mature after ~6 years?

Juveniles:

Found in highly varying densities and across a wide range of depth gradients within the nearshore system.

Economic value:

Excellent for lawn art (match gnomes beautifully!)

Economic value:

Focus of developing fishery (by-catch in lobster traps)

Sold to US domestic Asian market (mostly in LA)

Mean price = $1.43/kg = ~$0.15/whelk

Ase

ltine

-Nei

lson

et a

l. 20

06

RANGE

Expansion since ~1980

Bahia Asuncion

Catalina Island (southern)

Northern Channel Islands

0.00 25.00 50.00 75.00

Whelk density (#/transect)

Isla San RoquePunta Baja

Isla San MartinLa BufadoraSalta VerdeDana Point

NaplesAnacapa South

YellowbanksFrazer PointRhodes Reef

JalamaWhaler's Cove

McAbee

Density: mainland > islands. Baja highest.

POPULATION GENETICS STUDYCOI: Cytochrome Oxidase I gene in mtDNA

mtDNA: circular, ~16K basepairs long

COI sequence: 528 basepairs long

One sequence per individual adult

N = 15 – 35 samples/site

N = 16 sites, spanning entire range

COI

COI sampling sites Expansion

since ~1980

Bahia Asuncion

Expansion since ~1980

Bahia Asuncion

Site Hap diversity

MA 0.9076

WC 0.9048

DC 0.9191

HR 0.9181

RR 0.8807

GI 0.8762

YB 0.7664

NR 0.8246

IV 0.8840

SV 0.7966

PV 0.8891

DP 0.9025

PL 0.8723

SQ 0.8123

TT 0.7277

BA 0.8303

Regionwide genetic structure statisticsAnalysis of Molecular Variance (AMOVA):

Fst = 0.012 (P = 0.001)

Pairwise differences between sites:

Fst range: 0.02 – 0.05 (P < 0.05)

Bonferroni: (120 pairs)(0.05) = 6 expected by chance.

19 found.

Spatial Analysis of Molecular Variance (SAMOVA):

Fst = 0.02 – 0.03 (P = 0.002)

Non-equilibrium

stirred

Stepping stone

Genetic isolation by geographic distance: what to expect

No correlation

No correlation?

Positive correlation

Equilibrium

P = 0.14 (two-sided; R2 = 0.05; n = 16 sites; Mantel test)

P = 0.16 (two-sided; R2 = 0.5; n = 4 sites; Mantel test)

P = 0.14 (two-sided; R2 = 0.05; n = 13 sites; Mantel test)

P = 0.23 (two-sided; R2 = 0.05; n = 10 sites; Mantel test)

Doh!

(Hut

chin

son

& T

empl

eton

199

9)

Expanded range

Expansion, followed by isolation

Regional equilibrium

Regional non-equilibrium

Expanded rangeRegional equilibrium

At large scales, drift >

Relative dominance of gene flow vs. genetic drift varies with scale

Non-equilibrium

stirred

Stepping stone

Genetic isolation by geographic distance: what to expect

IBD signal only present at small scales

EquilibriumPeriodic regional disturbance due to el Nino

Sill in IBD curve reached at ~125 km

Fst = 0.0041*Ln(distance) – 0.0112

R2 = 0.07

P = 0. (two-sided; R2 = ; n = sites; Mantel test)

P = 0.04 (two-sided; R2 = 23; n = 6 sites; Mantel test)

P = 0.14 (two-sided; R2 = 0.77; n = 4 sites; Mantel test)

Slope = ~0.01 – ~0.5 Fst/1000 km

Palumbi 2003

12 km

site aggregate

Kij dispersal connectivity

Pairw

ise

Fst

P = 0.13

P = 0.11

1 MA

2 DC

3 HR

4 RR

5 GI

6 YB

7 IV

8 SV

9 PV

10 DP

11 PL

12 SQ

13 TT

14 BA

1 MA

2 DC

3 HR

4 RR

5 GI

6 YB

7 IV

8 SV

9 PV

10 DP

11 PL

12 SQ

13 TT

14 BA

Fst = 0.03 (P = 0.001)

June 2000 SST

(Ocean Data Center, UCSC)

TT

BA

1 MA

2 DC

3 HR

4 RR

5 GI

6 YB

7 IV

8 SV

9 PV

10 DP

11 PL

12 SQ

13 TT

14 BA

Fst = 0.03 (P = 0.001)

1 MA

2 DC

3 HR

4 RR

5 GI

6 YB

7 IV

8 SV

9 PV

10 DP

11 PL

12 SQ

13 TT

14 BA

Fst = 0.014 (P = 0.001)

1 MA

2 DC

3 HR

4 RR

5 GI

6 YB

7 IV

8 SV

9 PV

10 DP

11 PL

12 SQ

13 TT

14 BA

Fst = 0.013 (P = 0.001)

Don’t forget: Giacomo’s surf perch

Catalina Island (southern)

Northern Channel Islands

0.00 25.00 50.00 75.00

Whelk density (#/transect)

Isla San RoquePunta Baja

Isla San MartinLa BufadoraSalta VerdeDana Point

NaplesAnacapa South

YellowbanksFrazer PointRhodes Reef

JalamaWhaler's Cove

McAbee

Density: mainland > islands. Baja highest.

Thanks!

1 MA

2 DC

3 HR

4 RR

5 GI

6 YB

7 IV

8 SV

9 PV

10 DP

11 PL

12 SQ

13 TT

14 BA

1 MA

2 DC

3 HR

4 RR

5 GI

6 YB

7 IV

8 SV

9 PV

10 DP

11 PL

12 SQ

13 TT

14 BA

1 MA

2 WC

3 DC

4 HR

5 RR

6 GI

7 YB

8 NR

9 IV

10 SV

11 PV

12 DP

13 PL

14 SQ

15 TT

16 BA

1 MA

2 WC

3 DC

4 HR

5 RR

6 GI

7 YB

8 NR

9 IV

10 SV

11 PV

12 DP

13 PL

14 SQ

15 TT

16 BA

1 MA

2 WC

3 DC

4 HR

5 RR

6 GI

7 YB

8 NR

9 IV

10 SV

11 PV

12 DP

13 PL

14 SQ

15 TT

16 BA

1 MA

2 WC

3 DC

4 HR

5 RR

6 GI

7 YB

8 NR

9 IV

10 SV

11 PV

12 DP

13 PL

14 SQ

15 TT

16 BA

1 MA

2 WC

3 DC

4 HR

5 RR

6 GI

7 YB

8 NR

9 IV

10 SV

11 PV

12 DP

13 PL

14 SQ

15 TT

16 BA

P = 0.45 (two-sided; R2 = 0.027; n = 12 sites; Mantel test)

P = 0.058 (two-sided; R2 = 0.136; n = 9 sites; Mantel test)

Slope = ~0.01 – ~0.5 Fst/1000 km