Bivalves are an important part of the ecosystem and without them there would be negative effects on both economic and environmental factors in many different situations. In Blueskin Inlet, cockles are harvested and sold by a local company so the fecundity rates and distribution of cockles in the area is important for our local economy. The cockles are also filter feeders, feeding on particles suspended in the water, so their abundance or lack thereof, changes the environment and the ecosystems within it. Without cockles filtering the water in Blueskin inlet, there could be an increase in bacteria in the water (Marsden 2004) and also a decrease in marine and bird life that use the cockles as a primary food source. This makes it so important to find out what ecological effects such as feeding and growth rates ,and size and age of a cockle has on the cockle’s overall …show more content…
Our study showed that cockles thrived in the low tidal zone where the populations were larger in size and more abundant, and that they struggled in the high tide zone. This was due to a number of factors such as the environment, and the time period at which they were able to feed. In the high tide zone the cockle’s environment was much harsher, the surface was made up of rocks and gravel that the cockles were unable to bury under. Due to being the high tide, cockles were also exposed for much larger periods of time and unable to protect themselves from the sun or predators. This meant the stretch of time these cockles were submerged was shorter, so the opportunity to feed was decreased. In the low tide, this was not the case as the sediment was soft enough to allow the cockles to bury