Ontogenetic Allometry of Deposit Feeders

该提案计划整合两个与我们对沉积物喂食者的理解有关的研究途径，即澄清沉积物喂食者使用的沉积食物来源，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几种重要成分(包括微生物、微生物粘液和吸附小分子)的吸收速率与进食速率、肠道周转时间和吸收时间常数的关系；2)确定体型和体型对特定吸收率和特定代谢率的影响；3)确定内源性因素(与体型相关)和外在因素(与体型相关的摄食位置在沉积物中的位置)对头朝下沉积物摄食者发育过程中净能量增益的综合影响。拟议研究的最重要方面是，它综合了两种令人兴奋但不同的海底研究途径，一种是关于食物可获得性的地球化学控制，另一种是关于对觅食行为的理解。

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.