title: United we fail: Group versus individual strength in the California sea mussel, Mytilus californianus.
abstract: The mussel Mytilus californianus is a dominant competitor for space on wave-swept rocky shores, where it forms dense beds. Byssal threads anchor each mussel both to the substratum and to neighbors, allowing mussels to resist the onslaught of waves. When incident hydrodynamic stress exceeds a mussel's tenacity, the threads are broken, the mussel is dislodged, and a gap is opened in the bed. Here, we show that when groups of contiguous bed mussels experience similar hydrodynamic forces, they collectively have a lower tenacity than when force is applied to a single individual. Lowered group tenacity leads to greater probabilities of dislodgment, with ramifications for community dynamics and species diversity.
authors.affiliation: Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University, 120 Ocean View Blvd, Pacific Grove, California 93950.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cole
authors.affiliation: Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University, 120 Ocean View Blvd, Pacific Grove, California 93950 mwdenny@stanford.edu.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Denny
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002140:California; D004777:Environment; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D008954:Models, Biological; D049878:Mytilus / Q000502:physiology*