Abstract
Capitella capitata was cultured on three levels of five organic sources of detritus (Spartina alterniflora, Zostera marina, mixed cereal, Fucus, and Gracilaria sp.). Standing crops increased with increasing food levels of all types of detritus, with a general gradation in the nutritional value of marsh grass < eelgrass < mixed cereal < rockweed < Gracilaria.The best index of nutritional value was the amount of nitrogen supplied to the polychaetes. The biomass obtained at the highest feeding level of nitrogen‐poor eelgrass was about the same as that at the medium feeding level of rockweed. Once a given level of nitrogen (50 mg m−2 d−1) was available, caloric value apparently affected the nutritive quality of the detritus: the high feeding levels of rockweed resulted in greater standing crop of the polychaete than diets of Gracilaria containing similar levels of nitrogen but fewer calories.
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