Effects of prolonged food limitation on energy metabolism and burrowing activity of an infaunal marine bivalve, Mya arenaria

Benthic organisms are subject to prolonged seasonal food limitation in the temperate shallow coastal waters that can cause energetic stress and affect their performance. Sediment-dwelling marine bivalves cope with prolonged food limitation by adjusting different physiological processes that might cause trade-offs between maintenance and other fitness-related functions. We investigated the effects of prolonged (42 days) food deprivation on bioenergetics, burrowing performance and amino acid profiles in a common marine bivalve, Mya arenaria collected in winter and spring. Food limitation of >15 days decreased respiration of the clams by 80%. Total tissue energy content was higher in spring-collected clams (reflecting higher lipid content) than in their winter counterparts. Prolonged food deprivation decreased the tissue energy content of clams, especially in winter. The levels of free amino acids transiently increased during the early phase of food deprivation possibly reflecting suppression of the protein synthesis or enhanced protein degradation. The levels of amino acids considered essential for bivalves were more tightly conserved than those of non-essential amino acids during starvation. The burrowing capacity of clams was negatively affected by food deprivation so that the time required for a burial cycle increased by 35-50% after 22-42 days of starvation. During the early phase of starvation, clams preferentially used lipids as fuel for burrowing, whereas carbohydrates were used at the later phase. These findings suggest that although M. arenaria can withstand prolonged food deprivation by lowering their basal maintenance costs and switching their fuel usage, their ecological functions (e.g. bioturbation and the energy transferable to the next trophic level) could be negatively impacted by starvation.

Keywords: Amino acid pool; Bioturbation; Metabolism; Oxygen consumption; Starvation.