Competition in deposit- and suspension-feeding bivalves: experiments in controlled outdoor environments

• Published in: Journal of experimental marine biology and ecology 1992-01, Vol.162 (1), p.113-135
• Main Authors: Kamermans, Pauline, van der Veer, Henk W., Karczmarski, Leszek, Doeglas, Gijs W.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Animals; Autoecology; Biological and medical sciences; Bivalvia; Cerastoderma edule; Density effect; Deposit-feeder; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Growth; Macoma balthica; Marine; Protozoa. Invertebrata; Suspension-feeder
• ISSN: 0022-0981; 1879-1697
• DOI: 10.1016/0022-0981(92)90127-V

Experiments were carried out in an intertidal and a subtidal outdoor flow-through basin. The effect of bivalve density on growth and survival was studied in the facultative deposit feeder Macoma balthica (L.) and the obligate suspension feeder Cerastoderma edule L. Patches of 0.2 m 2 with densities of maximal 2480 bivalves per m 2 were used. In C. edule growth was density independent, whereas in M. balthica growth decreased with density, indicating intraspecicic competition in M. balthica, but not in C. edule. These different feeding in C. edule. In mixed populations, C. edule and M. balthica did nopt clearly influence each other's growth and survival, indicating that interspecific competition did not occur between the two species. Our experiments support the hypothesis of levinton (1972), that, on local scale, competition is expected more readily in deposit-feeding communities than in suspension-feeding communities.