Filter-feeding, food utilization, and nutrient remineralization by Corbicula fluminea (bivalvia) and its contribution to nutrient cycling in a North Carolina River
The introduced Asiatic clam Corbicula fluminea is quite prolific, and since it is a filter-feeder, it can be expected to influence the cycling of nutrients within its habitat as a result of its feeding and excretory activities. Factors affecting filtration rates, food utilization, and excretion of metabolic wastes (ammonia and phosphate) were determined by laboratory experiments, and these physiological processes were then extrapolated to field estimates of Corbicula found in the upper Chowan River, N.C., to obtain an estimate of the potential impact the clams can have on nutrient cycling in the river. Clam filtration rates of four different /sup 14/C-labeled algae species (two greens, a blue-green, and a diatom) were similar, although partitioning of the ingested isotope showed significant differences between the algal foods. The diatom species was the most efficiently utilized by the clams, with more than 80% of the isotope ingested recovered in clam tissues. Corbicula freshly collected from the Chowan River excreted substantially more ammonia than phosphate, and rates of excretion of both nutrients were highest in summer. Clam excretion rates were much higher than sediment fluxes, and as a source of recycled nutrients, these clams could provide about one third of the nitrogen and phosphate requirements of the phytoplankton in the upper Chowan.
- Research Organization:
- North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6722563
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Recolonization of reactor cooling water system by the Asiatic clam Corbicula fluminea
Field transplantation of the freshwater bivalve Corbicula fluminea along a polymetallic contamination gradient (River Lot, France): 1. Geochemical characteristics of the sampling sites and cadmium and zinc bioccumulation kinetics
Related Subjects
CLAMS
FEEDING
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
MINERALIZATION
PHOSPHATES
ALGAE
CARBON 14 COMPOUNDS
LABELLING
MINERAL CYCLING
NUTRIENTS
PHYTOPLANKTON
RIVERS
TRACER TECHNIQUES
ANIMALS
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
INVERTEBRATES
ISOTOPE APPLICATIONS
LABELLED COMPOUNDS
MOLLUSCS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHOSPHORUS COMPOUNDS
PLANKTON
PLANTS
STREAMS
SURFACE WATERS
520101* - Environment
Aquatic- Basic Studies- Radiometric Techniques- (-1989)