Prey Capture by the Sea Anemone Metridium senile (L.): Effects of Body Size, Flow Regime, and Upstream Neighbors.
نویسنده
چکیده
The sea anemone Metridium senile is a quantitatively important passive suspension feeder in hard-bottom communities on the west coast of Sweden and occurs in aggregations with different size distributions. This study tests the hypothesis that different polyp sizes have different optimal flow regimes maximizing prey capture. Results showed that prey capture by M. senile is a function of both flow regime and polyp size, and different optimal flow regimes exist for different size classes. Large anemones had a maximum feeding efficiency at the slowest flow, medium-sized anemones at moderate flow, and small anemones at moderate- to high-flow regimes. Small anemones showed consistently higher feeding rates (per unit of biomass and area of tentacle crown) at all velocities above 10 cm s-1 and exhibited less flow-induced deformation of the tentacle crown, suggesting that small anemones are better at feeding in moderate- to high-flow habitats. Different vertical projections of large and small anemones in the boundary layer could only partly account for differences in feeding success among size classes. Feeding rate was also a function of upstream conspecifics, declining asymptotically to 30% of the maximum rate. The negative effects of neighbors on feeding in aggregations with clonal rather than polyp growth appear to be compensated for by the generally higher feeding efficiency of small polyps.
منابع مشابه
Phases of activity in the sea-anemone, Metridium senile (L.), and their relation to external stimuli.
We have shown in a previous paper (Batham & Pantin, 19506) that the sea-anemone Metridium senile exhibits continual very slow muscular activity. It is most evident in the changes of shape of the column caused by the reciprocal contractions of the circular muscle sheet, and of the longitudinal parietal musculature which runs at the junction of each mesentery with the body wall. This inherent act...
متن کاملThe Alkaloid Ageladine A, Originally Isolated from Marine Sponges, Used for pH-Sensitive Imaging of Transparent Marine Animals
The brominated pyrrole-imidazole Ageladine A was used for live imaging of the jellyfish (jellies) Nausithoe werneri, the sea anemone Metridium senile and the flatworm Macrostomum lignano. The fluorescence properties of Ageladine A allow for estimation of pH values in tissue and organs in living animals. The results showed that Nausithoe werneri had the most acidic areas in the tentacles and clo...
متن کاملRole of the sea anemone Metridium senile in structuring a developing subtidal fouling community
In a variety of ecological settings, individual species have been shown to possess the ability to influence the structure and development of the community at large. However, within fouling communities, the influences of many sessile invertebrate species and how they drive patterns of succession remain relatively unexplored. The sea anemone Metridium senile is ubiquitous in cold temperate foulin...
متن کاملThe mitochondrial genome of the sea anemone Metridium senile (Cnidaria): introns, a paucity of tRNA genes, and a near-standard genetic code.
The circular, 17,443 nucleotide-pair mitochondrial (mt) DNA molecule of the sea anemone, Metridium senile (class Anthozoa, phylum Cnidaria) is presented. This molecule contains genes for 13 energy pathway proteins and two ribosomal (r) RNAs but, relative to other metazoan mtDNAs, has two unique features: only two transfer RNAs (tRNA(f-Met) and tRNA(Trp)) are encoded, and the cytochrome c oxidas...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید
ثبت ناماگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید
ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- The Biological bulletin
دوره 192 1 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 1997