A new method to estimate individual dry weights of rotifers

✍ Scribed by Hans Rainer Pauli

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 509 KB
• Volume: 186-187
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1573-5141
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00048932

✦ Synopsis

Body and egg volumes of 12 rotifer species of Lake Constance were calculated from more than 18000 individually measured animals using geometric approximations. Body (VA) and egg (VE) volumes of various rotifer species have an allometric relationship described by: VE = 1272 VA 3 3 79 , while the relation VE/VA for each species was constant ranging from 0.016 to 0.87. Dry weight of adult rotifers was assumed to be the sum of the egg dry weight plus a corrected weight increment from egg to adult. It was estimated with the formula WA = WE (1 + a FA/FE) where (a) was varied between 0 and 0.1. Egg dry weight content was assumed to be 35 % of fresh weight. The estimates of dry weight to wet weight ratios ranged from 0.57 % (Asplanchna priodonta) to 29.4% (Kellicottia longispina). Dry weight estimates obtained with this method are comparable to those obtained with direct measurements of dry weight or carbon content.