Pseudo-faeces production in bivalves
In: Journal of Sea Research. Elsevier/Netherlands Institute for Sea Research: Amsterdam; Den Burg. ISSN 1385-1101; e-ISSN 1873-1414, more
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| Keywords |
Aquatic organisms > Heterotrophic organisms > Filter feeders
Digestion
Energy budget
Excretory products > Faecal pellets
Food absorption
Bivalvia [WoRMS]
Marine/Coastal |
| Author keywords |
synthesizing units; DEB theory; pseudo-faeces; half-saturationcoefficient; differentiated growth; filtering rate; digestion rate; foodintake |
| Abstract |
Many filter feeders produce pseudo-faeces from selected particles that are filtered; pseudo-faeces does not pass the gut. Food intake can be limited by the filtering (acquisition) as well as the digestion (processing) rate. Its dynamics can be analysed in a straightforward way in the context of the Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory using the closed hand-shaking protocol of Synthesizing Units. The model reveals how food intake depends on the relative size of the filtering and digestion machinery, which can be used to model differentated growth of these structures if allocation is linked to their relative workload. It turns out that non-digestible particles modify the apparent half-saturation coefficient, which makes that estimates for this coefficient can be used to quantify the mean silt load in a given habitat. |
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