Epiphyte Grazer Data Perth Coastal Waters 1994

This dataset contains results from a series of laboratory and field experiments on local grazer communities to determine the parameter values required by the COASEC (Coastal Ocean Ecology) model. These experiments are part of the second stage of the Perth Coastal Waters Study. These parameters were delta, the grazing demand (biomass of food eatern per biomass of grazer per day; beta, the assimilation constant (the difference between the food consumed and defecated as a percentage of the food consumed); micron, the mortality constant (the turnover rate of the community), and kg, the ratio of food available to food demand to satisfy 50% of maximum potential growth of grazer communities. Empirically derived parameter values for the main grazers, crustaceans and gastropods were very different from each other and from the default values in the model. Experiments indicated that both types of grazers primarily fed on periphyton and grazing rates varied between summer and winter. Grazing impacts on larger epiphytes are dependent upon the type of grazer and the species of epiphyte.

本数据集收录了一系列针对本地牧食者群落的实验室与野外实验成果，旨在确定COASEC（Coastal Ocean Ecology，沿岸海洋生态学）模型所需的各项参数。该系列实验隶属于《珀斯沿海水域研究》的第二阶段工作。本次研究涉及的参数包括：δ（放牧需求量，即每日每单位牧食者生物量所摄食的食物生物量）、β（同化常数，即摄食食物与排泄粪便的差值占总摄食量的百分比）、μ（死亡率常数，即牧食者群落的周转率，原文标注为micron，应为参数笔误）以及k_g（满足牧食者群落50%最大潜在生长所需的可获得食物与食物需求量的比值）。针对主要牧食类群——甲壳动物与腹足类的经验推导参数值不仅彼此差异显著，且与模型的默认参数值亦存在明显不同。实验结果表明，两类牧食者均主要以周丛生物为食，且牧食速率存在显著的夏冬季节差异。牧食作用对大型附生植物的影响效果，取决于牧食者的类群类型与附生植物的物种特性。