Revision pre-ingestive selection efficiency definition for suspension feeding bivalves: facilitating the material fluxes modelling

The importance of the particle selective feeding of bivalves becomes more evident and it is necessary to incorporate this phenomenon into ecological models in order to reflect correctly the material fluxes inside the organism and ecosystem as well. The problems related to the modelling of organic matter selection are considered in this paper and a new definition of pre-ingestive selection efficiency is proposed. It differs from the classical one in using the organic material fraction in ingested food instead of pseudofaeces. The newly defined selection efficiency exhibits an advantage in simplified shape of experimental relationship to the organic matter fraction in seston and easier derivation of formulas related to mathematical food processing formulation. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.