Feeding the Larvae of the Sea Urchin Strongylocentrotus intermedius on a Red-Tide Dinoflagellate Cochlodinium polykrikoides

This study is the first attempt to understand the feeding physiology of a sea-urchin larva on a red-tide dinoflagellate. Fifteen day old larvae of S. intermedius capture C. polykrikoides cells by localized reversal of ciliary beats. No failure to transporte the algal cells from theciliated band to mouth and no rejection at the mouth suggest that C. polykrikoides has no feeding deterrence to S. intermedius larvae. The trend obtained for the clearance rate of S. intermedius larvae is similar to that of other sea urchin larvae. Thus, the clearance rate decreased as the algal concentration increased. Maximum clearance rate of S. intermedius on C. polykrikoides was 17.7 $\mu l$/larva/hr. Ingestion rate rapidly increased at lower algal concentrations and saturated at higher concentrations. There was no inhibition in ingestion rate at the highest prey concentration of ca. 3000 cells/ml. Maximum ingestion rate of S. intermedius on C. polykrikoides was 131 ngC/larva/d, which is higher than that reported for the larvae of the mussel Mytilus gal-lotrovincialis, but lower than that of the ciliate Strombidinopsis sp. The grazing rate, calculated by combining the field data on algal abundances with experimental data on ingestion rate, suggests that due to its low abundance, sea urchin Iarva has no significant grazing impact on C. polykrikoides population.