Biogeographical Distribution
B. schlosseri predominates in temperate, sub-tidal habitat throughout the world's oceans, though it frequently occurs in the sub-tropical waters of Australia and the Mediterranean (Rinkevich et al. 1998). It is thought that the widespread distribution of this animal can be attributed to its euryhaline and eurythermal nature. Experiments by Epelbaum et al. (2009) revealed a broad temperature and salinity tolerance range in B. schlosseri of British Columbia. Botryllus schlosseri colonies could persist in experimental conditions between 10 and 25°C temperature, and 14 and 38ppt salinity (table 1).
Table 1: Temperature and Salinity tolerance ranges for B. schlosseri found in previous records *Adapted from NIMPIS 2011
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Minimum
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Maximum
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Temperature
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3°C
Lower limit for survival of colonies in Italy (Brunetti et al. 1980)
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Unknown
90% survival has been observed for temperatures ranging from 10 -25°. (Epelbaum et al. 2009)
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Salinity
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14ppt
Lower limit for survival of colonies in British Columbia (Epelbaum et al. 2009)
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44ppt
Upper limit of survival for colonies from Italy (Brunetti et al. 1980)
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