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The Nature and Determination of Non-Living Sedimentary Organic Matter as a Food Source for Deposit Feeders

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Ecology of Marine Deposit Feeders

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes on Coastal and Estuarine Studies ((COASTAL,volume 31))

Abstract

Several lines of evidence imply that deposit feeders can and do use non-living food resources in marine sediments. Indeed, non-living food may comprise the bulk of the food for many species. The ability to use such food is indicated by feeding experiments which have shown ingestion selectivity by deposit feeders for protein-coated beads (Taghon 1982; Taghon and Jumars 1984) and demonstrated an ability to absorb non-living organic matter (Lopez et al., this volume). Tenore and coworkers (e.g. Tenore 1983) have also demonstrated the ability of polychaetes to utilize non-living detrital material. The actual use of non-living material in situ has been implied primarily via budgetary calculations (e.g. Canunen 1980; Rice et al. 1986), which show that the required assimilation efficiency of sedimentary organic matter indicates a bioavailable organic pool larger than can be provided by the living component.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oceanography Program Ira C. Darling Center, University of Maine, Walpole, ME, 04573, USA

    Lawrence M. Mayer

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  1. Lawrence M. Mayer
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Sciences Research Center, State University of New York, 11794, Stony Brook, NY, USA

    Glenn Lopez

  2. College of Oceanography, Oregon State University, 97331, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Gary Taghon

  3. Ecology and Evolution, State University of New York, 11794, Stony Brook, NY, USA

    Jeffrey Levinton

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© 1989 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.

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Mayer, L.M. (1989). The Nature and Determination of Non-Living Sedimentary Organic Matter as a Food Source for Deposit Feeders. In: Lopez, G., Taghon, G., Levinton, J. (eds) Ecology of Marine Deposit Feeders. Lecture Notes on Coastal and Estuarine Studies, vol 31. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-7671-2_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-7671-2_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-97001-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-7671-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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