Pseudo-faeces production in bivalves
Kooijman, S. A. L. M. 2006. Pseudo-faeces production in bivalves.
J. Sea Research 56: 103 - 106
Abstract
Many filter feeders produce pseudo-faeces from selected particles that
are filtered; pseudo-faeces does not pass the gut. Food intake can
be limited by the filtering (acquisition) as well as the digestion
(processing) rate. Its dynamics can be analysed in a straightforward
way in the context of the Dynamic Energy Budget theory using the
closed hand-shaking protocol of Synthesizing Units. The model
reveals how food intake depends on the relative size of the
filtering and digestion machinery, which can be used to model
differentated growth of these structures if allocation is linked to
their relative workload. It turns out that non-digestible particles
modify the apparent half saturation coefficient, which makes that
estimates for this coefficient can be used to quantify the mean silt
load in an given habitat.