Editorial: True limpets as living resources - biology, ecology, exploitation and sustainability

Abstract

True limpets (Patellogastropoda Lindberg, 1986) constitute a globally distributed and prominent group of marine gastropods, inhabiting environments ranging from rocky seashores to abyssal depths. Their scientific significance lies in their evolutionary status as basal gastropods, adaptive strategies for survival in challenging conditions, and their role as a dominant group influencing biological communities on rocky substrata (Lindberg, 2008; Henriques et al., 2017). Limpets play a pivotal role as keystone grazers influencing the macro-algal vegetation on rocky shores (Hawkins and Hartnoll, 1983; Jenkins et al., 2005; Coleman et al., 2006), exerting seasonal top-down control on microbial films (Thompson et al., 2004) and are crucial to local algal patchiness (Johnson et al., 1997; Burrows and Hawkins, 1998; Johnson et al., 1998). Limpets also have been exploited since the Pleistocene (Marean et al., 2007). Currently, limpets support various human activities such as food consumption, ornamentation, and as fishing bait (Firth, 2021). In this context, over exploitation coupled with other anthropogenic disturbances has led to increased sustainability risks for numerous limpet populations