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Biometrics, Carbon and Nitrogen Content in Two Cnidarians: Urticina Felina and Alcyonium Digitatum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

A. Migné
Affiliation:
Station Marine, Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, URA 1363 du CNRS, BP 80, F-62930 Wimereux, France
D. Davoult
Affiliation:
Station Marine, Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, URA 1363 du CNRS, BP 80, F-62930 Wimereux, France
M.A. Janquin
Affiliation:
Station Marine, Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, URA 1363 du CNRS, BP 80, F-62930 Wimereux, France
A. Kupka
Affiliation:
Station Marine, Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, URA 1363 du CNRS, BP 80, F-62930 Wimereux, France

Extract

A biometrical study was conducted on two common cnidarians: Alcyonium digitatum (Octocorallia) and Urticina felina (Hexacorallia). The aim was to relate both the carbon and the nitrogen content of these species to a simple and rapid measurement. As the simplest measurement that can be done on A. digitatum is a measurement of size, relationships were determined between the height of a colony and its organic carbon (OC=0.0002 H2.0254, n=104, γ2=0·923) and nitrogen (N=0.00004 H2.0283, n=104, γ2=0.928) content. As no constant size could be determined on sea anemones, linear relationships were established between dry weight (DW) and organic carbon (OC=0.419 DW, n=65, r=0.995) and nitrogen (N=0.095 DW, n=65, r=0.997) content in U. felina. All these relationships were highly significant (P<0.1%) and appeared useful to express biomass of the two species in terms of carbon or nitrogen and then to consider dynamic processes such as respiration or excretion as fluxes of carbon and nitrogen.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1996

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