Food Substrates and Digestive Capabilitites of Marine Deposit Feeders

小行星9618552 存款馈线在确定有机物质是脱矿质还是埋藏方面起着几个重要作用。 这些动物的功能是为微生物生长提供表面，并以远远超过沉积的速度在海底水平和垂直移动颗粒。 理解存款馈线的中心问题是识别它们使用的材料并确定这些材料的来源。 该项目的跨学科方法是联合收割机消化的化学反应器理论与 酶促可利用氨基酸的加工，重点是消化道的水解和吸收速率。 将开发体外和体内荧光测定方法，以测定小型存款饲养动物肠道中的酶活性;这些方法也适用于禁食动物。 将进行化学分析和沉积物饲养生物测定，以测试蛋氨酸或其他必需氨基酸是否在成岩作用的实验室模拟中变得更加有限。 在浅 潮下带地点将检验海参Parastichopuscalifornicus仅限于在相对高的甲硫氨酸浓度期间进食的假设。 在一个200米的网站的假设，即穴居的海胆宽额将显示更大的水解和吸收能力的氨基酸后，在春季开花比冬季将进行测试。

9618552 Mayer Deposit feeders play several important roles in determining whether organic material is demineralized or buried. These animals function to make surfaces available for microbial growth and move particles both horizontally and vertically within the seabed at a pace that far exceeds sedimentation. The central problem in understanding deposit feeders is to identify the materials that they utilize and to determine the sources of those materials. The interdisciplinary approach of this project is to combine a chemical reactor theory of digestion with measurements of the processing of enzymatically available amino acids, focusing on rates of hydrolysis in, and absorption from, the gut. In vitro and in vivo fluorometric methods will be developed to assay enzyme activity in the guts of small deposit feeders; these methods that will be applicable to planktonic animals as well. Chemical analyses and deposit-feeder bioassays will be conducted to test whether methionine or other essential amino acids become more limiting in laboratory simulations of diagenesis. In a shallow subtidal site the hypothesis that the holothuroid Parastichopus californicus is limited to feeding during times of relatively high methionine concentration will be tested. At a 200-m site the hypothesis that the burrowing urchin Brisaster latifrons will show greater hydrolytic and absorptive capacity for amino acids after the spring bloom than during winter will be tested.