TY - JOUR
T1 - Effect of food availability on egg production and packaging in the intertidal scavenging gastropod Nassarius festivus
AU - Cheung, S. G.
AU - Lam, S.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements We thank the two anonymous reviewers for providing constructive criticism of the manuscript. Financial support was provided by a strategic research grant (No. 7000588) of the City University of Hong Kong to S.G. Cheung.
PY - 1999/11
Y1 - 1999/11
N2 - Individuals of the scavenging gastropod Nassarius festivus (Powys) were maintained for 12 weeks at one of the three ration levels, i.e. one meal every 2, 7 or 14 d. and the effect on growth and fecundity were determined. The number and size of egg capsules, number of eggs per capsule and the calorific value of eggs together with the egg capsules decreased as food availability decreased. The size of the eggs, however, was not affected. At the end of the experiment, the cumulative mortalities were high for individuals maintained at the high and medium ration and were 56.3% and 50%, respectively, whereas the mortality was only 16.7% at the low ration. There was no increase in the shell length but a decrease in the total wet weight for all the treatments. As food availability decreased, the proportion of consumed energy allocated to reproduction decreased from 7.2% to 1.4%. This plastic life history may be a mechanism enabling scavengers to survive in an environment of which the food availability is patchy and unpredictable.
AB - Individuals of the scavenging gastropod Nassarius festivus (Powys) were maintained for 12 weeks at one of the three ration levels, i.e. one meal every 2, 7 or 14 d. and the effect on growth and fecundity were determined. The number and size of egg capsules, number of eggs per capsule and the calorific value of eggs together with the egg capsules decreased as food availability decreased. The size of the eggs, however, was not affected. At the end of the experiment, the cumulative mortalities were high for individuals maintained at the high and medium ration and were 56.3% and 50%, respectively, whereas the mortality was only 16.7% at the low ration. There was no increase in the shell length but a decrease in the total wet weight for all the treatments. As food availability decreased, the proportion of consumed energy allocated to reproduction decreased from 7.2% to 1.4%. This plastic life history may be a mechanism enabling scavengers to survive in an environment of which the food availability is patchy and unpredictable.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0032707425&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s002270050625
DO - 10.1007/s002270050625
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0032707425
SN - 0025-3162
VL - 135
SP - 281
EP - 287
JO - Marine Biology
JF - Marine Biology
IS - 2
ER -