BIOTIC

BIOTIC Species Information for Sabellaria alveolata
All Taxonomy Biology Distribution Reproduction

Researched by	Angus Jackson	Data supplied by	MarLIN
Refereed by	Prof. S. J. Hawkins
General Biology
Growth form	Tubicolous Vermiform segmented	Feeding method	Active suspension feeder
Mobility/Movement	Permanent attachment	Environmental position	Epifaunal
Typical food types	Seston	Habit	Tubiculous
Bioturbator	Not relevant	Flexibility	None (< 10 degrees)
Fragility	Intermediate	Size	Small-medium(3-10cm)
Height	Reefs can be 1m high	Growth Rate	12 cm reef/year
Adult dispersal potential	None	Dependency	Independent
Sociability	Gregarious
Toxic/Poisonous?	No
General Biology Additional Information	Size refers to individual worms. It is typically gregarious forming colonies of sheets, hummocks or reefs. In Cornwall, their tubes are up to 20 cm in length and around 5 mm in diameter at the external opening. Each tube has an additional porch over the opening. In northern France, the tubes were reported to grow in length at 12 cm/year. This species appears to be favoured by elevated winter temperatures associated with cooling water discharges (Bamber & Irving, 1997) but growth is inhibited below 5 °C Communities associated with Sabellaria alveolata are not particularly remarkable being species poor on young dense reef and up to 38 species on older reefs. Honeycomb worm aggregations that bind together mobile cobbles increase heterogeneity.
Biology References	Wilson, 1969, Gruet, 1986, Wilson, 1929, Cunningham et al., 1984, Wilson, 1971, Campbell, 1994, Gruet, 1985, Holt et al., 1998, Bamber & Irving, 1997,