DAME: ALLOMETRIC RELATIONSHIPS IN OYSTERS 



RESULTS 



Table 1 gives the allometric coefficients for 

 Equation (2) which best fitted the observed data 

 for the various morphological relationships. The 

 95% Confidence Intervals (C.I.) are included 

 for log a and b in order to allow an indirect 

 comparison of these values for intertidal and 

 subtidal oysters. The coefficients of a pair of 

 equations were considered significantly different 

 only if the range of log a or b ± its 95% C. I. 

 did not overlap. In addition, Table 1 gives the 

 number of pairs of data used (n) and the co- 

 efficient of determination (r^) which gives an 

 estimate of how well the data fit the allometric 

 model. (Perfect fit would be r^ = 1.0.) 



All relationships involving dry body weight 



were significantly diflferent for intertidal and 

 subtidal oysters. 



The dry body weight/whole weight relation-* 

 ships for intertidal and subtidal oysters had 

 significantly different b values, while the log a 

 values were not significantly diflFerent. These 

 findings mean that the growth relationships for 

 intertidal and subtidal oysters varied with size; 

 that is, the fitted lines are not parallel (Fig- 

 ure 2). 



The shell weight/dry body weight relation- 

 ships for intertidal and subtidal oysters had sig- 

 nificantly diflferent log a values, but similar b 

 values. The subtidal ratio of shell weight/dry 

 body weight is significantly higher than the 

 similar intertidal relationship (Figure 2). 



The dry body weight/soft body weight fitted 



Table 1. — A comparison of the allometric coefficients 

 ships for intertidal and subtidal oysters utilizing the 



for various morphological relation- 

 equation log Y = log a + b log X. 



1123 



