Collaborative Research: Separating the Grain from the Chaff: a Functional and Comparative Approach to Elucidate Particle Selection Mechanims in Suspension-Feeding Molluscs

双壳类软体动物（例如，蛤、牡蛎、扇贝）是底栖生物群落中最重要的成员之一，因为它们具有环境影响和商业价值。它们具有高效和复杂的机制来过滤它们周围的水，并捕获和分选其中的颗粒。它们的摄食过程强烈地耦合了水柱和底层群落，因此它们可以影响其他生物的总体福祉以及整体环境。由于这些生物在生态系统中发挥着如此关键的作用，因此了解它们如何处理颗粒物，将食物从非食物颗粒中分离出来，以及哪些因素控制着这一过程，这一点非常重要。在这项研究中，来自两所大学的科学家将利用他们以前开发的摄食生理学和生物化学技术，首次解决细胞和器官水平的选择基础，以解决有关双壳类和其他悬浮饲养者完成颗粒选择的机制的长期问题。本研究的核心是两个基本问题：1）粒子选择是一个主动过程，即，基于化学介导的行为或被动过程，即，基于颗粒和粘液覆盖的进食结构之间的相互作用？2）不同类群的悬浮液摄食软体动物，采用相同或不同的颗粒识别机制？这项研究的结果将有助于更好地了解不同种类的双壳类的摄食过程，双壳类对沿海环境的潜在影响，以及环境扰动（例如，污染）可能影响颗粒进料。结果将与生态系统健康和贝类恢复有关。这项研究将政府和大学的科学家联系起来，促进了思想和技术的交流。这项工作的更广泛影响将包括培训研究生和本科生，他们将参与研究的各个方面，并将参加科学会议。研究结果将通过科学文献、会议和非专业人士的文章传播。研究人员将与K-12教育工作者合作，开发适合年龄的教育包，以可理解的现实世界术语展示生态和经济上重要的海洋动物群体的基本生物学原理。

Bivalve molluscs (e.g., clams, oysters, scallops) are among the most important members of bottom-dwelling communities, both for their environmental impacts and commercial value. They possess highly efficient and complicated mechanisms for filtering the water around them, and capturing and sorting particles therein. Their feeding processes strongly couple water-column and bottom communities, and thus they can influence the general well-being of other organisms as well as the overall environment. Because these organisms play such a key role in ecosystems, it is important to understand how they process particulate matter, sorting food from non-food particles, and what factors control the process. In this research, scientists from two universities will use their previously developed techniques of feeding physiology and biochemistry to address, for the first time, the bases of selection at the cell and organ level to address long-standing questions regarding the mechanism(s) by which bivalves and other suspension feeders accomplish particle selection. At the core of this research are two fundamental questions: 1) Is particle selection an active process, i.e., based on chemically mediated behavior, or a passive process, i.e., based on interactions between particles and mucus-coated feeding structures?; and 2) Do different groups of suspension-feeding molluscs, employ the same or different mechanisms for particle discrimination? Results from this research will provide a better understanding of feeding processes in different species of bivalves, the potential impact of bivalves on coastal environments, and how environmental perturbations (e.g., pollution) might affect particle feeding. Results will be relevant to ecosystem health and shellfish restoration. The study links government and university scientists, and enhances cross-fertilization of ideas and techniques. Broader impacts of the work will include training of graduate and undergraduate students who will be involved in various aspects of the research and will participate in scientific conferences. Results will be disseminated through scientific literature, conferences, and articles for non-specialists. Working with K-12 educators, the researchers will develop age-appropriate educational packets that will demonstrate fundamental biological principles of an ecologically and economically important group of marine animals in understandable, real-world terms.