Diet of Worms Emended: An Update of Polychaete Feeding Guilds

Abstract

Polychaetes are common in most marine habitats and dominate many infaunal communities. Functional guild classification based on taxonomic identity and morphology has linked community structure to ecological function. The functional guilds now include osmotrophic siboglinids as well as sipunculans, echiurans, and myzostomes, which molecular genetic analyses have placed within Annelida. Advances in understanding of encounter mechanisms explicitly relate motility to feeding mode. New analyses of burrowing mechanics explain the prevalence of bilateral symmetry and blur the boundary between surface and subsurface feeding. The dichotomy between microphagous deposit and suspension feeders and macrophagous carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores is further supported by divergent digestive strategies. Deposit feeding appears to be limited largely to worms longer than 1 cm, with juveniles and small worms in general restricted to ingesting highly digestible organic material and larger, rich food items, blurring the macrophage-microphage dichotomy that applies well to larger worms.

The Port of Trieste (Northern Adriatic Sea)—A Case Study of the “Ecosystem Approach to Management”

“…Predators generally prey on small invertebrates and a potential top-down control on meiofauna is well-known (Van Colen et al, 2015). The polychaetes observed at these two stations belong to the families Lumbrineridae and Eunicidae, respectively, which have paired mandibles and complex sets of maxillae in a strongly muscular and eversible pharynx and are able crawlers and borrowers in muddy sediments (Jumars et al, 2015). These features render them very effective meiofauna predators.…”

“…Six different feeding habits were assigned to all individuals: surface deposit feeders (SDF), subsurface deposit feeders (SSDF), suspension feeders (SF), predators (P), omnivores (OMN), and grazers (G) using the following criteria: morphology of the feeding apparatus, feeding mode, nature and origin of the food. Traits for each taxon were derived from Roth and Wilson (1998) and Jumars et al (2015). Taxonomic resolution was kept at species level whenever possible but adjusted to genus or family when the information on traits was only available at higher taxonomic level.…”

Inter-annual species-level variations in an abyssal polychaete assemblage (Sta. M, NE Pacific, 4000 m)

“…M have shown that the polychaetes have a δ 15 N value indicating omnivory (Jeffreys et al, 2013). Given their relatively low densities and small body sizes, performing gut content analyses remains a challenge, and the life-histories of deep-sea polychaetes remain speculative (Jumars et al, 2015). Finally, compensatory dynamics may be most detectable in assemblages with limited species richness; the Sta.…”

Distribution and functional traits of polychaetes in a CO2 vent system: winners and losers among closely related species

“…The multi-faceted response of polychaetes to environmental disturbance are probably a consequence of their high morpho-functional diversity (Wilson 1991, Giangrande 1997, Jumars et al 2015, which allows different species to occupy a gradient from pristine to disturbed habitats (see Giangrande et al 2005 and references therein). The degree of tolerance/sensitivity to environmental disturbance or stress appears to be highly species-specific, since cogeneric species can show opposite responses to the same source of environmental stress (Musco et al 2009).…”