Filter-Feeding in Marine Invertebrates, 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Considering the dominant role of phytoplankton in primary production in the sea and oceans, it is understandable that filter-feeding is widespread and filter feeders (or suspension feeders) are found in almost all marine and aquatic animal classes. Filter-feeding animals are necessary links between suspended food particles (phytoplankton, free-living bacteria, and other members of the microbial loop) and higher trophic levels in marine food webs. In addition to many holo- and meroplanktonic organisms, such as copepods, pelagic tunicates, and invertebrate larvae that graze on phytoplankton and other food particles in the water column, many filter-feeding animals such as bivalves, polychaetes, ascidians, bryozoans, and sponges graze on phytoplankton in the near-bottom water. Particularly in shallow coastal waters and fjords, dense populations of filter-feeders may exert a pronounced grazing impact, which may keep the water clear (but not clean) in eutrophicated areas. On the contrary, dense populations of filter-feeding jellyfish and ctenophores in such areas may exert a pronounced predation impact on grazing zooplankton, resulting in phytoplankton blooms and making the water green. In addition, blooms of open-ocean filter-feeding pelagic tunicates such as pyrosomes and salps can control the populations of primary and secondary producers.

This Special Issue focuses on several related topics: bioenergetics and energy budgets, filter-pumps, particle capture mechanisms and retention efficiency, the grazing impact of filter feeders, the predation impact of jellyfish and ctenophores as well as the grazing impact of pelagic tunicates, and interactions between jellyfish and other zooplankton.

We invite researchers to submit articles that advance our understanding of filter-feeding in marine invertebrates.

Prof. Dr. Hans Ulrik Riisgård
Dr. Florian Lüskow
Guest Editors

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