Factors Affecting the Ecology of Suspension Feeders

Factors Affecting the Ecology of Suspension Feeders

Author: Sergio Rossi

Publisher: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing

Published: 2013-01

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 9783659325021

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Suspension feeders have a paramount role in benthic-pelagic coupling processes. The book explores both the environmental factors affecting its ecology (i.e. seasonal and short time seston dynamics, available food in the water column) and their response to such physical, chemical and biological factors (.e. activity rhythms, diet and capture rates, biochemical balance). The overall study has been made in the Coralligene, a Mediterranean hard-bottom community in which passive suspension feeders (especially gorgonians) are very abundant. Seasonality is described as a key factor to understand potential starvation effects and food constraints in these anthozoans.


The Comparative Roles of Suspension-Feeders in Ecosystems

The Comparative Roles of Suspension-Feeders in Ecosystems

Author: Richard F. Dame

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2006-03-30

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 1402030304

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Animals are a major link between the water column (pelagic) and the bottom (benthic) habitats in most shallow systems. This coupling is dominated by active processes such as suspension-feeding in which the organism actively uses energy to pump water that is then filtered to remove suspended particles that are consumed while undigested remains are deposited on the bottom. As a result of this feeding on and metabolism of particles, the animals excrete dissolved inorganic and organic waste back into the water column, and thus, become major components in the cycling and feedback of essential elements. With relatively high weight specific filtration rates of 1— 10 liters/hour/gram dry tissue and a propensity to form large aggregated populations (beds, reefs, schools and swarms), these organisms can play an important role in regulating water column processes Although estuarine bivalve molluscs such as oysters and mussels dominate the suspension-feeder literature, other groups including plankton and nekton that are found in estuarine as well as other aquatic systems are also potentially important removers of suspended particles. Thus, a significant part of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop focused on suspension-feeders as controllers of plankton abundance, biomass and diversity, system metabolism, nutrient cycling and scale dependency. Systems dominated by suspension-feeders are typically impacted by human activities including recreation, aquaculture, human and industrial pollution, and bilge water from shipping. Suspension-feeders are often impacted by fisheries and over-exploitation. These impacts commonly result in changes in ecosystem structure either through the food chain concentration of harmful substances or diseases, the introduction of alien species of suspension-feeders, or the instability of suspension-feeders systems through species displacement or phase shifts in the dominance between different suspension-feeding components such as nekton or zooplankton. These issues were addressed near the close of the workshop along with conclusions and syntheses developed by the working groups.


Ecosystem Concepts for Sustainable Bivalve Mariculture

Ecosystem Concepts for Sustainable Bivalve Mariculture

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2010-03-18

Total Pages: 191

ISBN-13: 0309152313

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U.S. mariculture production of bivalve molluscs-those cultivated in the marine environment-has roughly doubled over the last 25 years. Although mariculture operations may expand the production of seafood without additional exploitation of wild populations, they still depend upon and affect natural ecosystems and ecosystem services. Every additional animal has an incremental effect arising from food extraction and waste excretion. Increasing domestic seafood production in the United States in an environmentally and socially responsible way will likely require the use of policy tools, such as best management practices (BMPs) and performance standards. BMPs represent one approach to protecting against undesirable consequences of mariculture. An alternative approach to voluntary or mandatory BMPs is the establishment of performance standards for mariculture. Variability in environmental conditions makes it difficult to develop BMPs that are sufficiently flexible and adaptable to protect ecosystem integrity across a broad range of locations and conditions. An alternative that measures performance in sustaining key indicators of ecosystem state and function may be more effective. Because BMPs address mariculture methods rather than monitoring actual ecosystem responses, they do not guarantee that detrimental ecosystem impacts will be controlled or that unacceptable impact will be avoided. Ecosystem Concepts for Sustainable Bivalve Mariculture finds that while performance standards can be applied for some broad ecosystem indicators, BMPs may be more appropriate for addressing parameters that change from site to site, such as the species being cultured, different culture methods, and various environmental conditions. This book takes an in-depth look at the environmental, social, and economic issues to present recommendations for sustainable bivalve mariculture.


Ecological Comparisons of Sedimentary Shores

Ecological Comparisons of Sedimentary Shores

Author: K. Reise

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 3642565573

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Sedimentary coasts with their unique forms of life and productive ecosystems are one of the most threatened parts of the biosphere. This volume analyzes and compares ecological structures and processes at sandy beaches, tidal mudflats and in shallow coastal waters all around the world. Analyses of local processes are paired with comparisons between distant shores, across latitudinal gradients or between separate biogeographic provinces. Emphasis is given to suspension feeders in coastal mud and sand, to biogenic stabilizations and disturbances in coastal sediments, to seagrass beds and faunal assemblages across latitudes and oceans, to recovery dynamics in benthic communities, shorebird predation, and to experimental approaches to the biota of sedimentary shores.


Bivalve Filter Feeders

Bivalve Filter Feeders

Author: Richard F. Dame

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-06-29

Total Pages: 576

ISBN-13: 3642783538

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Bivalve filter-feeding mollusks are important components of coastal ecosystems because they remove large quantities of suspended material from the water and excrete abundant amounts of reactive nutrients. These animals are also major prey for numerous predators including birds, fish, mammals, and invertebrates; furthermore, they are significant food resources for humans. While studies on the organismic and population level have dominated bivalve ecology, the recent focus on the ecosystem roles of filter feeding systems has led to larger-scale investigations. With this approach the specific topics of physiology, grazing, predation, nutrient cycling, physical environment, computer simulation modeling, and environmental management are combined into a meaningful whole.


Rotatoria

Rotatoria

Author: Henri J. Dumont

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 9400992092

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At the end of the first international Symposium on Rotifers diately accepted to do this, and kindly made an entire in Lunz, Austria, September 1976, entousiastic pleas were special volume of its Journal 'Hydrobiologia' available made for a second gathering of possibly the same format for this purpose. Also, arrangements were made to have and spirit that had made the first one such a great success. the proceedings out as quickly as possible. The proceedings include all papers that were presented One of us (HJD), 'supported' herein by his friends Charles E. King and Jens Petter Nilssen in particular, tentatively in Gent, and two communications by collegues who could suggested that Gent University might host a meeting of not attend in person. They thus amount to 23 original con this kind, having in mind that since the Xlth congress of tributions, including the summaries of the workshops. All SIL in 1950, no other SIL activity had take places in have been reviewed by the editors, and many, in addition Belgium. In view of the relatively large number of Be1gian by one or more referees. Manuscripts have been adjusted, rotifer workers, many among which are or were active in wherever needed, for grammar, clarity of meaning, and Gent, this proposal sounded acceptable to the attendance length. However, where possible, the flavor of some per of the Lunz meeting, who then gave each other rendez sonal styles was left unaltered.


Concepts and Controversies in Tidal Marsh Ecology

Concepts and Controversies in Tidal Marsh Ecology

Author: M.P. Weinstein

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2007-05-08

Total Pages: 862

ISBN-13: 0306475340

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In 1968 when I forsook horticulture and plant physiology to try, with the help of Sea Grant funds, wetland ecology, it didn’t take long to discover a slim volume published in 1959 by the University of Georgia and edited by R. A. Ragotzkie, L. R. Pomeroy, J. M. Teal, and D. C. Scott, entitled “Proceedings of the Salt Marsh Conference” held in 1958 at the Marine Institute, Sapelo Island, Ga. Now forty years later, the Sapelo Island conference has been the major intellectual impetus, and another Sea Grant Program the major backer, of another symposium, the “International Symposium: Concepts and Controversies in Tidal Marsh Ecology”. This one re-examines the ideas of that first conference, ideas that stimulated four decades of research and led to major legislation in the United States to conserve coastal wetlands. It is dedicated, appropriately, to two then young scientists – Eugene P. Odum and John M. Teal – whose inspiration has been the starting place for a generation of coastal wetland and estuarine research. I do not mean to suggest that wetland research started at Sapelo Island. In 1899 H. C. Cowles described successional processes in Lake Michigan freshwater marsh ponds. There is a large and valuable early literature about northern bogs, most of it from Europe and the former USSR, although Eville Gorham and R. L. Lindeman made significant contributions to the American literature before 1960. V. J.


Biology of the Hard Clam

Biology of the Hard Clam

Author: J.N. Kraeuter

Publisher: Gulf Professional Publishing

Published: 2001-04-26

Total Pages: 780

ISBN-13: 9780444819086

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Systematics and taxonomy / M.E. Harte -- Shell structure and age determination / Lowell W. Fritz -- Embryogenesis and organogenesis of veligers and early juveniles / Melbourne R. Carriker -- Anatomy and histology of Mercenaria mercenaria / Albert F. Eble -- Reproduction in Mercenaria mercenaria / Arnold G. Eversole -- Genetics of hard clams, Mercenaria mercenaria / Thomas J. Hilbish -- Functional morphology and behavior of shelled veligers and early juveniles / Melbourne R. Carriker -- Physiological ecology of Mercenaria mercenaria / Raymond E. Grizzle, V. Monica Bricelj and Sandra E. Shumway -- Demography and dynamics of hard clam populations / Stephen R. Fegley -- Integrating nutritional physiology and ecology to explain interactions between physics and biology in Mercenaria mercenaria / Charles H. Peterson -- Predators and predation / John N. Kraeuter -- Pests, parasites, diseases, and defense mechanisms of the hard clam, Mercenaria mercenaria / Susan E. Ford -- Management of hard c ...