Macoma balthica   (Linnaeus, 1758)

Baltic macoma

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drawing shows typical species in Tellinidae.

Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | CoL | ITIS | WoRMS

Bivalvia | Cardiida | Tellinidae

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Benthic; brackish; depth range 0 - 270 m (Ref. 95344).  Polar

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Introductions

Arctic, Northern Atlantic, Northeast Pacific and the Mediterranean Sea.

Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm ?  range ? - ? cm Max length : 3.8 cm SHL male/unsexed; (Ref. 95344); max. reported age: 10 years (Ref. 2823)

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Maximum depth from Ref. 117961. Occurs from the upper part of the intertidal down to the shallow subtidal zone (Ref. 76547). Circumboreal and panarctic. Buries shallow to 20 cm under muddy-sandy substrate, commonly in bays and estuaries (Refs. 95344, 95753). In the northern Baltic Sea, known to thrive in eutrophic conditions (Ref. 95752). It is infaunal on sand and eelgrass beds and epifaunal on eelgrass beds (Ref. 95819). Deposit and suspension feeder (Refs. 76547, 96470). Surface deposit feeder (Ref. 66387). Feeds from the surface of the sediment using their long siphons (Ref. 7882), and is a subsurface detritivore (Refs. 95728, 96470).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Members of the class Bivalvia are mostly gonochoric, some are protandric hermaphrodites. Life cycle: Embryos develop into free-swimming trocophore larvae, succeeded by the bivalve veliger, resembling a miniature clam.

Main reference References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Vakily, J.M. 1992. (Ref. 7693)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435)

  Not Evaluated 

CITES status (Ref. 108899)

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

Human uses


| FishSource |

Tools

E-book | Field guide

Internet sources

BHL | BOLD Systems | CISTI | DiscoverLife | FAO(Publication : search) | Fishipedia | GenBank (genome, nucleotide) | GloBI | Gomexsi | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | PubMed | Tree of Life | Wikipedia (Go, Search) | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Preferred temperature (Ref. 115969): 5.3 - 14.2, mean 9.7 (based on 850 cells).
Resilience (Ref. 69278): Medium, minimum population doubling time 1.4 - 4.4 years (K=0-0.46; tmax=10).
Vulnerability (Ref. 71543): High to very high vulnerability (74 of 100).
Price category (Ref. 80766): Unknown.