Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:06:48.844Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mesacanthion Diplechma (Nematoda: Thoracostomopsidae), a Link to Higher Trophic Levels?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Olivier Hamerlynck  and
Ann Vanreusel
Olivier Hamerlynck
Affiliation:
Marine Biology Section, Zoology Institute, University of Gent, Ledeganckstraat 35, B 9000 Gent, Belgium and Centre for Estuarine and Coastal Ecology, Vierstraat 28, NL 4401 EA Yerseke, The Netherlands
Ann Vanreusel
Affiliation:
Marine Biology Section, Zoology Institute, University of Gent, Ledeganckstraat 35, B 9000 Gent, Belgium and Centre for Estuarine and Coastal Ecology, Vierstraat 28, NL 4401 EA Yerseke, The Netherlands
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The nematode Mesacanthion diplechma Southern is relatively rare in sediments of the Southern Bight of the North Sea and the Dutch Delta. Strangely, it is about the only free-living nematode found in the stomachs of the sand goby Pomatoschistus minutus Pallas from the same general area and even more peculiarly several hundred animals were found in sand gobies from the central part of the Oosterschelde. The large size of the nematode and its preference for the superficial sediment layers are probable causes for the first observation. For the second observation there is at present no explanation that can be substantiated. Some nematodes are known to aggregate on dead animals and possibly the Oosterschelde gobies may have been feeding on such an aggregation.

Type
Short Communications
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 73 , Issue 2 , May 1993 , pp. 453 - 456
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Fitzhugh, G. R. & Fleeger, J. W., 1985. Goby (Pisces: Gobiidae) interactions with meiofauna and small macrofauna. Bulletin of Marine Science, 36, 436–444.Google Scholar
Gee, J. M., 1989. An ecological and economic review of meiofauna as food for fish. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 96, 243–261.Google Scholar
Gerlach, S. A., 1977. Attraction to decaying organisms as a possible cause for patchy distribution of nematodes in a Bermuda beach. Ophelia, 16, 151–165.Google Scholar
Hamerlynck, O., Heip, C. & Redant, F., 1986. Life history, food consumption and resource partitioning in two sympatric gobies Pomatoschistus minutus and P. lozanoi in the Belgian coastal waters. International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (CM Papers and Reports), CM 1986/L: 14 37 pp. (mimeo).Google Scholar
Heip, C., Huys, R., Vincx, M., Vanreusel, A., Smol, N., Herman, R. & Herman, P. M. J., 1990. Composition, distribution, biomass and production of North Sea meiofauna. Netherlands Journal of Sea Research, 26, 333–342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heip, C., Vincx, M. & Vranken, G., 1985. The ecology of marine nematodes. Oceanography and Marine Biology. Annual Review. London, 23, 399–489.Google Scholar
Hofsten, A. Von, Kahan, D., Katznelson, R. & Bar-El, T., 1983. Digestion of free-living nematodes fed to fish. Journal of Fish Biology, 23, 419–428.Google Scholar
Lorenzen, S., 1974. Die Nematodenfauna der sublitoralen Region der Deutschen Bucht, insbesondere im Titan-Abwassergebiet bei Helgoland. Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Meeresforschung in Bremerhaven, 14, 305–327.Google Scholar
Lorenzen, S., Prein, M. & Valentin, C., 1987. Mass aggregations of the free-living marine nematode Pontonema vulgare (Oncholaimidae) in organically polluted fjords. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 37, 27–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, A. L. & Coull, B. C., 1989. Selection of meiobenthic prey by juvenile spot (Pisces): an experimental study. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 53, 51–57.Google Scholar
Ólafsson, E., 1992. Small-scale spatial distribution of marine meiobenthos: the effects of decaying macrofauna. Oecologia, 90, 37–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Onadeko, C. A., 1992. The food and feeding habits of the sleeper goby, Batanga lebretonis (Steindachner) (Pisces: Teleostei: Eleotrididae) in the Lagos Lagoon, Nigeria. Journal of African Zoology, 106, 177–189.Google Scholar
Platt, H. M. & Warwick, R. M., 1983. Free-living marine nematodes. Part I. British enoplids. Synopses of the British Fauna, no. 28, 307 pp.Google Scholar
Sharma, J., 1985. A study of the nematode fauna of three estuaries in The Netherlands. PhD thesis, State University of Gent.Google Scholar
Smol, N., 1986. Rol van het meiozoobenthos in de Oosterschelde. Internal Report. Delta Institute for Hydrobiological Research. Yerseke, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Vanreusel, A., 1990. Ecology of the free-living marine nematodes from the Voordelta (Southern Bight of the North Sea). I. Species composition and structure of the nematode communities. Cahiers de Biologie Marine, 31, 439–462.Google Scholar
Vanreusel, A., 1991. Ecology of the free-living marine nematodes from the Voordelta (Southern Bight of the North Sea). II. Habitat preferences of the dominant species. Nematologica, 37, 343–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vincx, M., 1986. Free-living marine nematodes from the Southern Bight of the North Sea. PhD thesis, State University of Gent.Google Scholar
Wieser, W., 1953. Die Beziehungen zwischen Mundhöhlengestalt, Ernährungsweise und Vorkommen bei freilebenden marinen Nematoden. Arkiv för Zoologi, 4, 439–484.Google Scholar