Abstract
Nematodes are the most abundant multicellular animals in marine sediments but their role in the benthos has not been properly quantified yet. In nearly all energy-flow budgets of marine systems their annual production P is given as about nine times their mean biomass B and their part in the total energy-flow is consequently estimated as anywhere between 3 and 30% of the total (carbon) input in the benthic system. Our laboratory experiments demonstrate that nematode productivity is much higher than P/B ∼ 9 per year and may reach values of over 60 for bacterial grazers. To obtain more reliable estimates for field populations we propose a regression equation relating egg-to-egg development time Tmin to temperature (t) and adult female weight (W in µg wet weight):log Tmin = 2.202−0.0461 t + 0.627 log W. When multiplied by the constant biomass turnover per generation (P/B)gen = 3, development rate 1/Tmin is a good predictor of daily P/B. This method was applied to two series of field data. A rather stable community from a sublittoral mud in the North Sea had an annual P/B = 20. A less stable Aufwuchs community from Sargassum in Japan had an annual P/B = 58.
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Vranken, G., Herman, P.M.J., Vincx, M. et al. A re-evaluation of marine nematode productivity. Hydrobiologia 135, 193–196 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00006530
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00006530