Role of benthic marine invertebrates in carbon flow

这项研究的目标是研究文蛤Yoldia Hyperborea的摄食、消化和营养。Yoldia Hyperborea生活在纽芬兰沿海水域的细泥中，温度永久低于0摄氏度。这种文蛤严重依赖春季硅藻水华产生的有机物，然后沉入海底。一个主要目标是确定文蛤对断断续续的食物供应的反应。*生活在冷海大陆架底部沉积物中的无脊椎动物在该系统的生态中扮演着重要的角色，代表着大量固定在海底群落中的碳。然而，它们的生物学还不是很清楚。由于常年接近0°C的水域为研究冷水生态和生态生理学提供了一个天然实验室，也允许频繁采样。此外，这项工作还将侧重于文蛤积累长链多不饱和脂肪酸，这对维持生物膜的完整性非常重要。

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.