Journal
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL MARINE BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY
Volume 409, Issue 1-2, Pages 315-323Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.jembe.2011.09.010
Keywords
Aspidochirote; Grain size; Organic content; Sea cucumber; Sediment; Selectivity
Categories
Funding
- University of Auckland
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Highly accurate methods were used to investigate varying types of feeding selectivity in juvenile sea cucumber, Australostichopus mollis both in situ and in laboratory experiments. Juvenile A. mollis exhibited significant levels of positive selectivity for organic particles. Nitrogen enrichment in fine grain foregut samples exceeded 100% compared to diet sediments, whilst carbon enrichment was as high as 145%. Foregut organic enrichment was, however, less than that reported for other aspidochirote holothurians. In laboratory behavioural experiments significantly more juveniles inhabited areas where sediment total organic matter (TOM) was higher. However, the ability of juveniles to distinguish between different TOM levels of sediments became limited once TOM in treatments exceeded approximately 3%. Comparative analyses of grain size spectra in foregut and diet sediments, however, showed feeding is non-selective for particle size. The ability of juvenile A. mollis to effectively select organic particles from sediments underlines the importance of deposit-feeding sea cucumbers in nutrient recycling and regulation in coastal sediments. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available