Suspension feeding of the ark shell <Emphasis Type="Italic">Scapharca subcrenata</Emphasis> as a function of environmental and biological variables |
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| Authors: | Email author" target="_blank">Yasuo?NakamuraEmail author |
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| Institution: | National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan |
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| Abstract: | ABSTRACT: To assess the roles of the ark shell Scapharca subcrenata in material cycling in the northern part of Ariake Sound (Mae-no-umi), Japan, filtration of the ark shell fed on small diatoms was examined as a function of environmental and biological variables. The clearance rate ( CR ) specific to the soft-body dry weight ( w ) of the animals (shell length, 8–26 mm) followed a power function of w with an exponent of ?0.35. Over the range of 10–20°C, CR increased 2.7 times, and filtration did not occur below a salinity of 14 practical salinity unit. Neither food concentration (10–40 µg/L of chlorophyll- a ) nor weight-specific daily ration (0.5–6%/day in terms of ash-free dry weight) notably affected CR . Using this information on CR as well as data regarding abundance and size distribution, the population filtration rate was calculated to be 1.6 m3/m2 per day in the ark-shell culturing ground of Mae-no-umi (mean water depth, ～3 m), corresponding to the potential to locally process a volume of water equivalent to the water column within 2 days. Because the culturing ground accounts for 12% of Mae-no-umi (mean water depth, ～8 m), the ark shell seems to play an important role in its material cycling. |
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| Keywords: | ark shell bivalves clearance rates Scapharca subcrenata |
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