Comparative studies of beaches

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Abstract
Over a period of six years, scientists from Scottish marine laboratories and universities worked for the winter season with colleagues in India on the ecology of Indian beaches. The intention was to compare the population dynamics with similar studies on west coast Scottish beaches. Microbial, invertebrate and vertebrate fauna were studied, in terms of population distributions and especially, by experimental work, in relation to energy flow. The results show that, for the microbial and invertebrate fauna, the rates of energy flow are very much greater on the Indian than on the Scottish beaches. Thus population biomass, which is similar for the two areas, is a poor indicator of the dynamics. For the fish populations, metabolic rates are very similar, indicating almost complete compensation to the difference in temperatures. These differences between different parts of the ecosystem lead to speculations about the factors determining adaptation in the different environments.

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