INTERACTIVE EFFECT OF VELOCITY AND SESTON CONCENTRATION ON GIANT SCALLOP FEEDING INHIBITION

Short-term feeding experiments with starved giant scallops Placopecten magellanicus Gmelin show that there is an interaction between ambient velocities and cell densities of a preferred unialgal diet offered, such that at high concentrations, flow-inhibited feeding persists at higher velocities. This result implies that there is homoeorheostatic control of feeding in the giant scallop involving the recognition of cell density, as well as ambient velocities around the scallop.