Growth of the northern quahog, Mercenaria mercenaria, in an experimental-scale upweller

摘要

Upwellers have proven to be extremely effective as bivalve nursery units and their use is steadily increasing in North America. The re-analysis of previous work by others suggests an asymptotic relationship between growth (% volume increase per day) and chlorophyll-a effective flow rate (the amount food flowing past a unit biomass of northern quahogs, mug per minute per liter of northern quahog volume). An experiment field study was conducted to define the relationship between food flow and bivalve stocking density. Furthermore, this study was designed to investigate other significant environmental parameters influencing bivalve growth in an experimental-scale upweller system.