Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on The Comparative Roles of Suspension-Feeders in Ecosystems, Nida, Lithuania, 4-9 October 2003.
Systems dominated by suspension-feeders are typically impacted by human activities including recreation, aquaculture, human and industrial pollution, and bilge water from shipping. Suspension-feeders are often impacted by fisheries and over-exploitation. These impacts commonly result in changes in ecosystem structure either through the food chain concentration of harmful substances or diseases, the introduction of alien species of suspension-feeders, or the instability of suspension-feeders systems through species displacement or phase shifts in the dominance between different suspension-feeding components such as nekton or zooplankton. These issues were addressed near the close of the workshop along with conclusions and syntheses developed by the working groups.
Modeling particle selection efficiency of bivalve suspension feeders.- Field measurements on the variability in biodeposition and estimates of grazing pressure of suspension-feeding bivalves in the northern Baltic Sea.- Can bivalve suspension-feeders affect pelagic food web structure?- Motile suspension-feeders in estuarine and marine ecosystems.- Impact of suspension-feeding nekton in freshwater ecosystems: patterns and mechanisms.- Influence of eastern oysters on nitrogen and phosphorous regeneration in Chesapeake Bay, USA.- How does estimation of environmental carrying capacity for bivalve culture depend upon spatial and temporal scales?- Impact of increased mineral particle concentration on Acartia clausi (Copepoda) behaviour, suspension feeding and reproduction.- Suspension-feeders as factors influencing water quality in aquatic ecosystems.- Neoplasia in estuarine bivalves: effect of feeding behaviour and pollution in the Gulf of Gdansk (The Baltic Sea, Poland).- Bivalves as biofilters and valuable by-products in land-based aquaculture systems.- Significance of suspension feeder systems on different spatial and temporal scales.- Invaders in suspension-feeding systems: variations along the regional environmental gradient and similarities between large basins.- Contrasting distribution and impacts of two freshwater exotic suspension-feeders, Dreissena polymorpha and Corbiculafluminea.- Functional changes in benthic freshwater communities after Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas) invasion and consequences for filtration.- Does the introduction of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas lead to species shifts in the Wadden Sea?- One estuary, one invasion, two responses: phytoplankton and benthic community dynamics determine the effect of an estuarine invasive suspension-feeder.- Development of human impact on suspension-feeding bivalves in coastal soft-bottom ecosystems.- Oyster reefs as complex ecological systems.- Synthesis/Conclusions.- Index .