THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CROSS-FERTILIZATION AND SELF-FERTILIZATION FOR PRESERVING POPULATIONS’ STABILITY OF DOMINANT (LYMNAEA STAGNALIS) AND RARE (STAGNICOLA CORVUS) SPECIES OF FRESHWATER PULMONARY MOLLUSKS
A. P. Golubev1, A. S. Khomich1, D. V. Axenov-Gribanov2,3, Yu. A. Lubyaga2, Zh. M. Shatilina2,3, Yu. A. Shirokova2, O. A. Bodilovskaya1
1International Sakharov Environmental Institute, Minsk, Belarus 2Research Institute of Biology, Irkutsk, Russia 3Baikal Research Centre, Irkutsk, Russia
Keywords: cross-fertilization, self-fertilization, Lymnaea stagnalis, Stagnicola corvus, growth and reproduction, pollution of water bodies, adaptations
Abstract
The growth and reproduction parameters in progeny of abundant (Lymnaea stagnalis) and rare (Stagnicola corvus) pulmonate species originated from the specimens captured in water bodies with the different forms and levels of anthropogenic pollution were determined in the reproduction experiment by cross-fertilization (CF) and self-fertilization (SF). It has been shown that SF leads to increasing of pre-reproductive age, fertility decline, decreasing amount of breeding individuals and growth rate of population numbers. Increasing of waterbodies’ pollution level leads to decrease of ability to SF in L. stagnalis. S. corvus as compared with L. stagnalis is characterized by reduced ability to SF. It could be one of the most crucial reasons for low abundance of S. corvus in nature.
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