Column Barnacle: A Structural Analysis

Barnacles are small crustaceans with hard shells made of chitin containing a small soft creature. This shell is a structural adaptation that helps them survive because it protects them from predation and other harms such as being crushed. (Anthoni, 2007) They filter water with their legs when they are submerged to eat plankton. When the tide goes down again, they close a ‘door’ in their shells to trap water inside. (Whoi education, 2014) This is another structural adaptation that stops them from drying out during low tide. Barnacles can live out of the water for long periods of time, which allows them to thrive on the rocky shore.

Column barnacle
The column barnacle is a smaller barnacle than the brown barnacle. Its fundamental niche ranges from high to low tidal zones, but it is more prone to desiccation than Chamaesipho brunnea so it prefers a damper climate (Luckens, 1975). While the brown barnacle only settles on rock, the column barnacle can also settle on mollusc shells, wood, iron and other barnacles (Luckens, 1975). This is an adaptation that allows the column barnacle an advantage in lower tidal zones, where it can settle on top of brown barnacles and disrupt …show more content…
These are linked because the competition is primarily space. (Southward, 1987) This competition is both intraspecific (when they compete for space with members of their own species) and interspecific (when they compete with other and other species that are present). This competition leads to zonation because at lower tidal zones, the brown barnacle is out-competed by the column barnacle while at higher tidal zones the column barnacle is out-competed by the brown barnacle. They need space to attach to the rock, but also to feed and reproduce (Luckens, 1975). Both species have adapted by this in ways that allow them to co-exist on the same