New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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Deposit feeding ecology of Amphibola crenata II. Contribution of microbial carbon to Amphibola's carbon requirements

S. KIM JUNIPERt

Department of Zoology
University of Canterbury
Christchurch, New Zealand

and

Cawthron Institute

P.O. Box 175
Nelson, New Zealand

Abstract Several recent studies have indicated that deposit feeder nutrition is more complex than depicted in traditional models of detrital food webs. Micro-organisms may be less important as sources of carbon than as sources of nitrogen, and the microbial contribution to deposit feeder diets appears to vary from site to site. The carbon requirements for respiration of two populations of the gastropod Amphibola crenata were compared with carbon available from assimilation of sediment bacteria and microalgae. The calculated total microbial contributions were 23.5 and 50.3% of the snails' estimated carbon requirements for respiration. The contribution of microalgae is probably subject to more local variability than that of sediment bacteria. These results suggest that several living and non-living food sources collectively contribute to the nutrition of Amphibola crenata, with non-living sources possibly supplying the major portion of the snail's carbon requirement.

Keywords deposit feeding; Amphibola crenata; benthic ecology; carbon budget; sediment microorganisms

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 1987, Vol. 21: 247-251 0028-8330/87/2102-0247$2.50/0 © Crown copyright 1987 Received 12 January 1986; accepted 17 September 1986

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (425K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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