Role of benthic marine invertebrates in carbon flow

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The goal of this research is to study feeding, digestion and nutrition in a clam, Yoldia hyperborea, which lives in fine mud in coastal waters of Newfoundland at temperatures permanently below 0°C. The clam depends heavily on organic matter from the spring diatom bloom, which sinks to the bottom. A major objective is to determine how the clam responds to an intermittent food supply. Invertebrate animals that live in bottom sediments on the continental shelf in cold oceans play an important role in the ecology of the system, and represent a significant amount of the carbon tied up in the benthic community, yet their biology is not well understood. The close proximity of water that is below 0°C year-round provides a natural laboratory for studying cold-water ecology and ecophysiology and also permits frequent sampling. The work will also focus on the accumulation of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids by the clam, which are important in maintaining the integrity of biological membranes.