Rock barnacle

Marine Crustacea, which include barnacles and crabs and the marine molluscs, which include mussels, can cause severe fouling problems when coastal seawater is used for once-through cooling of power plant turbine condensers. Various species of marine barnacles, mussels, and their spat quickly establish in warm waters and become extremely troublesome. (The problems are exacerbated by seaweed, sponges, various other marine organisms, and SRBs.) The marine acorn (or rock) barnacle, of group Cirripedia, is a common marine foulant, as are the mussels of family Mytillidae. 

Marine Crustacea Includes acorn (or rock) barnacle of group Cirripedia and crabs. Also the marine Molluscs, including Mytillidae mussels. 

Figure 1 Mars Pathfinder rover performing an APXS analysis of a rock (Barnacle Bill).

Mauck RA, Harkless KC (2001) The effect of group membership on hiding behavior in the northern rock barnacle, Semibalanus balanoides. Anim Behav 62 743-748... 

Barnacle bar-ni-k9l [ME barnakille, alter, of bernake, bernekke] (15c) n. Any of certain cmstaceans of the group cirripedia, as the goose barnacles, the stalked species which cling to ship bottoms and floating timber, and the rock barnacles, the species which attach themselves to marine rocks. 

Arthropods Crustacean Crab, rock lobster, prawn, shrimp, krill, barnacle Urticaria Tropomyosin Arginine kinase 9... 

Barnacles secrete an adhesive to attach themselves to rocks, ships, and other objects. This adhesive hardens rapidly, even in seawater. This adhesive, which is predominately calcium carbonate in a proteinaceous matrix, contains chitin (55), Eggs of lice are attached to the bristles of hogs by a very hydrolysis-resistant adhesive that contains chitin and p-benzoquinone (56),... 

Pathfinder returned over 10,000 color pictures from Mars, painting a picture of the surface as one that over a billion years ago had once been scoured by huge floods of liquid waters, with salty residues left from puddles that once slowly evaporated. At the same time, Pathfinder took pictures of Sojourner roaming about the planet s surface, sometimes nestling against rocks for analysis. Sojourner was equipped to chemically analyze the rocks it encountered— the first two of which were nicknamed Barnacle... 

The oyster flatworm (Stylochus ellipticus) lives in tide pools and under rocks. This cream-colored organism has a narrow band of eyespots and a fringe of tiny tentacles on its anterior end. Oyster flatworms, which can grow up to 1 inch (2.5 cm) long, feed on barnacles as well as oysters. 

Barnacles are sessile crustaceans that live within protective plates. Positioned so that their heads are down and their legs are sticking out into the water, barnacles spend their lives attached to wood, rock, or some other solid surface. At low tide, when they are exposed to air, barnacles close their plates to prevent drying. These plates have a small opening that allows moist air to circulate over their gills, providing oxygen. 

The teeth of a common blenny are sharp and comblike, ideally designed for scraping barnacles off rocks and for crunching crabs into bite-size pieces. Other small invertebrates are also important sources of food. Blennies have to be on constant watch against their own predators, which include larger fish as well as seabirds. 

More complete and better data about the chemical composition of the Martian surface were obtained from the Mars Pathfinder s Soujourner Rover, which landed on the planet s surface on July 4, 1997. The chart on pages 119-121 contains data on three soil samples gathered from Mars on this mission (A-2, A-4, and A-5), as well as two Martian rocks, nicknamed "Barnacle Bill" (A-3) and... 

Three individuals from each sampling level were selected for isotopic analysis, with the smallest (youngest) individuals being selected on the basis of aperture diameter (Stubbings 1975), with a mean aperture carina-rostral axis distance of 1.99 + 0.39 mm (Iff). All 45 barnacles selected in this manner are believed to have settled on the rock face during the year of collection, thus reducing the potential for age-related differences in isotopic composition. All samples selected for analysis were dried at 60 °C for 20 hrs. 

Fig. 1.5 Examples of mating interactions in several species of crustaceans where males are known or inferred to be receiver of female pheromones, (a) Rock shrimp Rhynchocinetes typus (b) amphipod Parhyalella penai (c) squat lobster Cervimunida johni (d) barnacle Balanus laevis (photographs courtesy of Ivan A. Hinojosa)...

Adhesion to a substratum may be permanent, transitory, temporary, and instantaneous. Permanent adhesion involves the secretion of a cement and is characteristic of sessile organisms staying at the same place throughout their adult life (e.g., the attachment of barnacles on rocks). Transitory adhesion allows simultaneous adhesion and locomotion the animals attach by a viscous film they lay down between their body and the substratum, and creep on this film which they leave behind as they move. Instantaneous adhesion is related to very rapid attachment for prey capture or defensive reaction. Permanent adhesives consist almost exclusively of proteins, while non-permanent adhesives are made up of an association of proteins and carbohydrates. 

Figure 13.1. Some sticky sea species that you will find in tide pools mussels (left), kelp (center), and barnacles covering a rock (right).

Grab a hold of a mussel or two. Try pulling it off the rock. Pretty difficult, isn t it What about one of those tubes made by the marine worms You ll need a hammer and chisel to get at them. And those barnacles Don t even bother trying to pull them off the rocks. No chance. Soooo. .. how do you think these creatures are able to attach themselves so well Some quick observation on your part will tell you that they are making adhesives and cements. OK, so what about the chemistry of these glues Interestingly enough, we don t really... 

Looking all around you in the tide pools, you can see so many different creatures sticking themselves to the rocks—tube worms, acorn barnacles, gooseneck barnacles, limpets, mussels, seaweed, periwinkles, starfish, and anemones (see Figure 13.1). We don t yet know how most of them stick. So there is a lot of fun science for you to explore in the future. For now, let me give you an overview of what we do know about these critters. We scientists have more information on mussel adhesive than any other marine system. 

Barnacles. After mussels, we probably know the most about how the common acorn barnacle makes its cement. You can see barnacles on a rock in Figure 13.8. Here, too, the material is based on cross-linked proteins. However, there is no DOPA in the barnacle cement proteins. Perhaps the thiol groups of cysteine amino acids (i.e., RSH groups) are oxidizable to disulfides and take part in an oxidative protein cross-linking to form barnacle cement, although we do not yet know for sure. Hair perms rely on just this type of disulfide formation to link hair and hold it in a given configuration. Barnacle... 

Figure 1. 8. Barnacles on a rock (left) and an underwater photograph of tube worms on a rock (right).

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