Diet and feeding of Neomysis mercedis Holmes (Crustacea, Mysidacea) from the Fraser River Estuary, British Columbia
- 1 May 1982
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Canadian Science Publishing in Canadian Journal of Zoology
- Vol. 60 (5) , 813-824
- https://doi.org/10.1139/z82-112
Abstract
Neomysis mercedis in the Fraser River estuary is a predator on the meiobenthos, especially harpacticoid copepods. There are no clear seasonal differences in its utilization of food resources. The consumption rate of N. mercedis feeding from natural sediments varies with body size and temperature as C = 3.81 W0.782T0.515, where C is the consumption rate of meiofauna in micrograms dry weight per animal per hour, W is the mysid size in milligrams dry weight, and T is the temperature in degrees Celsius. The weight dependence of the ingestion rate is identical to that of the metabolic rate but the temperature dependence is significantly lower. The mysid selectively feeds on the organic fraction of the sediments but only one-half of the ingested material (by weight) is of biological origin. In mid-April, mysid predation may result in a 12% per day mortality rate on harpacticoid copepods. Thus, mysid predation may strongly influence meiofaunal densities.This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- Moderate predation on meiofauna by the macrobenthos of the Wadden SeaHelgoland Marine Research, 1979