Importance of refractory plant material to the carbon budget of the oysterCrassostrea virginica

✍ Scribed by M. P. Crosby; C. J. Langdon; R. I. E. Newell

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 951 KB
• Volume: 100
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0025-3162
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00391150

✦ Synopsis

The ability of the oyster Crassostrea virginica (Gmelin) to filter, ingest and assimilate 14C-labeled Spartina alterniflora as a carbon source was investigated under laboratory conditions. The oyster assimilated crude-fiber carbon extracted from S. aherniflora with an efficiency of approximately 3%.

Enteric bacteria did not enhance this process. The annual average (April 1984 to November 1985) of crude fiber in the Choptank River sub-estuary of the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, USA, from which the oysters were collected, was ]5.7 #g1-1 (range 4.3 to 34.3 #g l-l). The potential food value of crude fiber to oysters in this system was estimated to be less than 1% of their carbon demand. However, the potential contribution of crude fiber to the carbon requirements of other oyster populations, such as those in southeastern USA, may be as great as 20%, due to higher crudefiber concentrations in the seston.