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waders and their estuarine food supplies - Vlaams Instituut voor de ...

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20 •<br />

-60 -40 -20 0 +20 +40<br />

<strong>de</strong>viation Irom mean body weight (%)<br />

BURROWING AND FEEDING IN NEREIS<br />

7. MMEfl<br />

+60<br />

Fig. 6. Nereis diversicolor. Burrow <strong>de</strong>pth (mean ± SEi of worms ol<br />

10 (7 to 141 cm as a function of body condilion in 4 seasons<br />

(n = 2247): sites with different clay contenl are laken together. As in<br />

I <strong>and</strong> 5 a correction was ma<strong>de</strong> io adjust for the si/e effect on<br />

<strong>de</strong>plh. See Table 5 for statistical analysis.<br />

Burrow <strong>de</strong>pth in relation to season <strong>and</strong><br />

temperature<br />

There was a great difference in burrow <strong>de</strong>pth between<br />

summer <strong>and</strong> winter for all si/e classes (Fig. 3). Figure<br />

7 shows the burrow <strong>de</strong>pth of Nereis of 10 em over a<br />

number of years. There is a large similarity between<br />

ihc years: burrow <strong>de</strong>pth was maximal in January or<br />

Table 5. Results ol a 2 way analysis ol variance lo lesi the ell<br />

body condition <strong>and</strong> season on burrow <strong>de</strong>pth (n = 2247: same dala as<br />

lig. 61.<br />

Soun e "i variation A'-. ';<br />

Main effects<br />

season<br />

condilion<br />

T\vo-way interaction<br />

29.5<br />

27.1<br />

3.5<br />

(1.0<br />

(MX) I<br />

0.001<br />

0.001<br />

0.242<br />

February, followed by a <strong>de</strong>crease of 2 cm per month<br />

until the minimal <strong>de</strong>pth was reached in June or July.<br />

Then, in late summer, burrow <strong>de</strong>pth gradually began to<br />

increase again with an acceleration after October.<br />

Variations in burrow <strong>de</strong>pth throughout the year cor­<br />

respond with day length, but there is a betier correla­<br />

tion between <strong>de</strong>pth <strong>and</strong> sea water temperature (Fig. 71.<br />

Figure 8 shows a curvilinear relationship between sea<br />

water temperature <strong>and</strong> burrow <strong>de</strong>pth. Burrow <strong>de</strong>pth<br />

appears to <strong>de</strong>pend on temperature, in<strong>de</strong>pen<strong>de</strong>nt of the<br />

time of year; an analysis of covariance (not shown)<br />

confirmed this.<br />

All burrows were found in ihc upper 30 cm. even in<br />

winter, <strong>and</strong> since a core sampler of 40 em was used, the<br />

possibility of <strong>de</strong>eper burrow s was eliminated. The fact<br />

that burrow <strong>de</strong>pth correlates well with sea water tem­<br />

perature (Figs. 7 <strong>and</strong> 8) suggests that low temperatures<br />

stimulate Nereis to <strong>de</strong>epen <strong>their</strong> burrows. The only<br />

lime we observed remarkable digging activity by<br />

Kij*. 7. Nereis diversicolor. Seasonal variation<br />

m burrow <strong>de</strong>plh (mean ± SI<br />

worms of I<strong>de</strong>m (7 to 14 cm. with transformation<br />

as in l-'ig. 4|. living in mud (clay<br />

content £ '>' ; I. Sea water temperatures on<br />

Ihe sampling dales are laken from Ihe series<br />

ol daily measurements ol RijkswakTslaal<br />

al Holwerd. N J M M J S N<br />

308

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