Food ingestion and digestive transit time in the euphausiid Meganyctiphanes norvegica as a function of animal size
Laboratory experiments with Meganyctiphanes norvegica of different sizes (7 to 70 mg dry) fed on Artemia salina show that the daily specific ingestion rate varies with animal weight according to a power law with a negative exponent of -0.58. This relation is used to calculate the production rate of...
| Published in: | Journal of Plankton Research |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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Oxford University Press
1979
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| Online Access: | http://plankt.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/1/4/301 https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/1.4.301 |
| Summary: | Laboratory experiments with Meganyctiphanes norvegica of different sizes (7 to 70 mg dry) fed on Artemia salina show that the daily specific ingestion rate varies with animal weight according to a power law with a negative exponent of -0.58. This relation is used to calculate the production rate of faeces which is higher in the smaller individuals when expressed as a percentage of animal weight; a comparison of the M. norvegica data with published data for Calanus helgolandicus indicates that this rate is higher for the smaller species. Under the experimental conditions used the digestive transit time of food in M. norvegica is appreciably shorter in smaller animals (15 minutes versus 30 minutes). The data, combined with other data previously obtained for the same ipecies, show that the metabolism of active, well-fed individuals is about three times higher than the standard metabolism. |
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