Consumption of Aquatic Plants by the West Indian Manatee
Consumption of Aquatic Plants by the West Indian Manatee
复制标题
西印度海牛对水生植物的消耗
DOI：
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发表时间：
1985
影响因子：
1.1
通讯作者：
H. I. Kochman
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
K. Etheridge;G. Rathbun;J. Powell;H. I. Kochman
由于海牛（Trichechus manatus）是大型水生食草动物，它们通常被认为是水生植物的潜在控制剂。这个概念有几个问题，其中一个主要问题是海牛食物消耗率的知识存在差距。我们通过测量单位时间内的咀嚼次数、单位食物量的咀嚼次数和咀嚼食物所用的时间来估计食物消耗量。收集了各种大小的圈养海牛的数据，并用于构建回归方程，预测基于身体大小的消费率。通过对自由放养动物进行无线电遥测获得时间预算数据。估计海牛吃黑藻（黑藻罗伊尔）的消费率进行了比较，估计生物量的黑藻在国王湾，佛罗里达，越冬的大型海牛种群（116在1980-1981年的冬天）。据估计，仅消耗海鲶的现存生物量就需要将近十倍的海牛。海牛作为水生植物的控制代理人的效率低下变得更加明显，当植物生产力包括在这些估计。
Because manatees (Trichechus manatus) are large aquatic herbivores they have often been considered as potential control agents for aquatic plants. Several problems are associated with this concept, and a major one has been the gap in knowledge concerning food consumption rates of manatees. We estimated food consumption by measuring chews per unit time, chews per amount of food consumed, and time spent chewing food. Data were collected on captive manatees of various sizes and used to construct regression equations that predict consumption rates based on body size. Time budget data were obtained by radiotelemetry of free-ranging animals. Estimates of consumption rates for manatees eating hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata Royle) were compared to the estimates biomass of hydrilla in Kings Bay, Florida, the overwintering site for a large manatee populations (116 in the winter of 1980-1981). Estimates show that nearly ten times as many manatees would have been needed just to consume the standing biomass of hydrilla. The inefficiency of manatees as control agents for aquatic plants becomes even more apparent when plant productivity is included in these estimates.