Ontogenetic Allometry of Deposit Feeders

本研究计划整合两种与我们对沉积物食用者的理解有关的研究途径，即澄清沉积物食用者使用的沉积物食物来源，以及发展解释其觅食行为的理论基础。具体目标包括：1)阐明沉积有机质及其重要组分（包括微生物、微生物黏液和吸附小分子）的吸收率在摄食率、肠道周转时间和吸收时间常数方面的关系；2)确定体型和体型对比吸收率和比代谢率的影响；3)确定了内生性因素（与粒度形状有关）和外生性因素（与粒度在沉积物中的摄食位置有关）对顶下式沉积物喂料器发育过程中净能量增益的综合影响。这项提议的研究最重要的方面是，它整合了两种令人兴奋但截然不同的底栖生物研究途径，一种是食物可用性的地球化学控制，另一种是对觅食行为的理解。

This proposal plans to integrate two avenues of research that bear on our understanding of deposit - feeders, namely the clarification of the sedimentary food sources used by deposit feeders, and the development of the theoretical underpinning for explaining their foraging behavior. The specific objectives include: 1) clarifying the relationship of absorption rates of sedimentary organic matter and several of its important components, including microbes, microbal mucus, and adsorbed small molecules, in terms of feeding rates, gut turnover times, and absorption time constants; 2) determining the effects of body size and body shape on specific absorption rates and specific metabolic rates; and 3) determining the combined effects of intrinsic (size and shape related) and extrinsic (size related feeding position in the sediment) factors on the net energy gain during the developmental history of a head-down deposit feeder. The most significant aspect of the proposed research is that is integrates aspects of two exciting, but disparate, avenues of benthic research, one on the geochemical control of food availability, the other on an understanding of foraging behavior.