The Nutritional Value of Sediment to Deposit Feeders

本研究的主要概念是，河口沉积物中添加碎屑的春季脉冲和相对较低的温度相结合，最大限度地提高了动物生物量的生产。假设沉积物的营养价值很低，除了春季的碎屑添加之后。本研究将评估在不同温度和碎屑添加的实验条件下沉积物营养价值的季节变化；它将试图了解沉积物的营养价值是如何变化的。将沉积物碳和氮转化为动物肉的效率与碎屑转化效率进行比较。缺氧区作为限制进料通道深度的一个因素的重要性也将被调查。

The principal concept of this research is that the combination of a spring pulse of detrital addition to estuarine sediments and relatively low temperatures maximize the production of animal biomass. The nutritive value of the sediment is hypothesized to be low, except just after the detrital addition in the spring. This study will assess seasonal changes in the nutritional value of sediment under experimental conditions of varying temperature and detrital addition; it will seek to understand how sediment nutritional value changes. The conversion of sediment carbon and nitrogen to animal flesh will be compared with the conversion efficiency from detritus. The importance of the anoxic zone as a factor limiting the depth of feeding access will also be investigated.