Selective Feeding and Grazing Rates of Oyster (Crassostrea virginica) Larvae on Natural Phytoplankton Assemblages
- 1 December 1984
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Nature in Estuaries
- Vol. 7 (4) , 513-518
- https://doi.org/10.2307/1352056
Abstract
Results of laboratory feeding experiments suggest that oyster (Crassostrea virginica) larvae select small phytoplanktonic organisms (<10 μm) over larger-celled forms from natural estuarine assemblages, but that little selection occurs within the small phytoplankton fraction. Laboratory-reared larvae grazed each of five small-celled phytoplankton groups enumerated (coccoids, centrate diatoms, pennate diatoms, dinoflagellates, and flagellates) at rates proportional to phytoplankton group densities in controls (no larvae added). Larval grazing rates (number of cells removed per larva per hour) were inversely proportional to both larval density and experimental duration.This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- Preferential ingestion of organic material by the American oyster Crassostrea virginicaMarine Ecology Progress Series, 1983