Abstract
A laboratory experiment was conducted in 1992 (January–March) to evaluate variation of juvenile growth (% · day −1) of the polychaete Nereis diversicolor (O.F. Müller) in relation to tidal flat plant species as food sources. Experimental design used plant materials (alga and vascular plants) found abundantly in the intertidal ecosystem along the southeastern coast of the English Channel in which juveniles were sampled for the 3-month experiment. Juveniles ( ≤ 1-yr-old) markedly increased in wet weight with the alga Enteromorpha intestinalis (weight-specific growth rate μ: 1.9 ± 0.01% · day −1) as food source. A higher value of assimilation efficiency was observed for algal species ( E. intestinalis: 86.0%) than for marine vascular plants ( Salicornia europae 61.7 ± 9.5%; Halimione portulacoïdes 48.3 ± 6.6%; Spartina anglica 37.0 ± 2.7%). The digestion of marine vascular species took longer (17 to 33 h) than that of algae. All these characteristics (growth, assimilation efficiency and duration of digestive process) seem to be correlated positively with lignin and cellulose concentrations in the plant tissue.
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