Stoichiometry of growth under variable scenarios of nutrient limitation: Differential homeostasis of body composition among growth phenotypes of the Manila clam.

Fast- and slow-growing phenotypes from two separate breeding families of the Manila clam (Ruditapes philippinarum) were alternatively fed two monoalgal diets with high and low N content (C:N ratios of 4.9 and 13.5, respectively). After 35 days of food conditioning, clams were sacrificed, and the soft body was dissected out into five different tissue fractions to determine the corresponding ponderal ratios (tissue wt./body wt.) and a separate analysis of the elemental composition of these tissues. Previously reported C and N balances performed with the same conditioning diets were integrated and compared with tissue composition of the same phenotypes in order to assess the efficacy of mechanisms elicited to compensate for N deficit. Broad differences in dietary N content resulted in only minor changes in whole-body C:N composition which suggests a noticeable degree of homeostatic regulation of nutrient balances. This regulation was found to be stricter in fast-compared to slow-growing phenotypes and differed among the various body tissues. Using the threshold element ratio approach, physiological mechanisms were identified that partly compensate for large stoichiometric mismatches between low-N food and body tissues.

Metabolic size scaling reflects growth performance effects on age-size relationships in mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis).

Body-size scaling of metabolic rate in animals is typically allometric, with mass exponents that vary to reflect differences in the physiological status of organisms of both endogenous and environmental origin. Regarding the intraspecific analysis of this relationship in bivalve molluscs, one important source of metabolic variation comes from the large inter-individual differences in growth performance characteristic of this group. In the present study, we aimed to address the association of growth rate differences recorded among individual mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) with variable levels of the standard metabolic rate (SMR) resulting in growth-dependent shift in size scaling relationships. SMR was measured in mussels of different sizes and allometric functions fitting SMR vs. body-mass relationships were compared both inter- and intra-individually. The results revealed a metabolic component (the overhead of growth) attributable to the differential costs of maintenance of feeding and digestion structures between fast and slow growers; these costs were estimated to amount to a 3% increase in SMR per unit of increment in the weight specific growth rate. Scaling exponents computed for intraindividual SMR vs body-mass relationships had a common value b = 0.79 (~ ¾); however, when metabolic effects caused by differential growth were discounted, this value declined to 0.67 (= ⅔), characteristic of surface dependent processes. This last value of the scaling exponent was also recorded for the interindividual relationships of both standard and routine metabolic rates (SMR and RMR) after long-lasting maintenance of mussels under optimal uniform conditions in the laboratory. The above results were interpreted based on the metabolic level boundaries (MLB) hypothesis.

From classical to nonparametric growth models: Towards comprehensive modelling of mussel growth patterns.

Understanding biological processes, such as growth, is crucial to development management and sustainability plans for bivalve populations. Von Bertalanffy and Gompertz models have been commonly used to fit bivalve growth. These models assume that individual growth is only determined by size, overlooking the effects of environmental and intrinsic conditions on growth patterns. The comparison between classical models and nonparametric GAM (generalized additive models) fits conducted in this work shows that the latter provide a more realistic approach of mussel growth measured in terms of shell length, and dry weight of hard and soft tissues. GAM fits detected a reduction in growth during the cold season, under unfavourable nutritional conditions. These fits also captured the decoupling between hard and soft tissue growth, widely addressed in the literature but not incorporated in growth models. In addition a GAM fit of condition index allowed us to explain annual changes in resources allocation, identifying the asymptotic growth of shell and the effects of the reproductive cycle on soft tissue fluctuations.