FOOD-RESOURCE PARTITIONING IN THE DEPOSIT FEEDING POLYCHAETE PECTINARIA GOULDII

¹ The University of Chicago, Committee on Evolutionary Biology, 5734 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637 and the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543

1. A study of the food-resource partitioning in the deposit-feeding polychaete Pectinaria gouldii collected from Little Sippewisset salt marsh, Massachusetts, shows that, on the average, larger worms select larger particles than smaller worms. Comparisons of ingested sediment with sediment collected where the animals were feeding indicate that the polychaetes prefer organic-encrusted mineral grains, floc aggregates, and fecal material.

2. Histological stains were used to determine the percentage particle abundance of different possible food sources and fractions ingested by the polychaetes. Mercuric bromphenol blue (MBB) was used to stain protein-containing material and periodic acid Schiff reagent (PAS) was used to stain carbohydrate-protein complexes. Total possible organic material in the sediment averaged 32.7%. Very little of the sediment (less than 0.4%) stained with MBB, while an average of 13.9% of the sediment stained with PAS. Of the total possible organic matter, only about one-half stained with the PAS reagent suggesting not all of the material is organic in nature.

3. Analysis of the sediment ingested by the worms averaged 42.7% possible organic matter of which 20.5% was PAS-stained. Calculations of the assimilation efficiencies of P. gouldii show that the worms remove, on the average 30% of the possible organic matter and 29.1% of the stained material from the sediment.

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