Comparative ecophysiology of active zoobenthic filter feeding, essence of current knowledge

The present contribution gives an overview of current knowledge of a comprehensive and steadily growing research field. The first section deals with water pumping and particle retention mechanisms in ciliary and muscular filter feeders. The second section examines the biological filter pumps in order to assess adaptation to the environment. Filter-feeding benthic invertebrates have evolved filter pumps to solve common basic problems. This has led to a large degree of similarity between otherwise distant standing species, which makes comparative studies interesting and important. The present review of zoobenthic filter feeding aims at accentuating such recognition. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.