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Trophic web and carrying capacity in a pearl oyster farming lagoon (Takapoto, French Polynesia)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2001

Nathalie Niquil
Affiliation:
ESA 8046 CNRS, École pratique des hautes études, 52, avenue de Villeneuve, 66860  Perpignan cedex, France Criobe, BP 1013 Moorea, French Polynesia Present address: EA 3168, Laboratoire de biologie et environnement marins, Pôle sciences et technologie, Université de La Rochelle, avenue Michel-Crépeau, 17042 La Rochelle cedex 1, France
Stéphane Pouvreau
Affiliation:
Centre de recherche en écologie marine et aquaculture (IFREMER–CNRS), BP 5, 17137 LHoumeau, France Unité expérimentale dArgenton, Laboratoire de physiologie des invertébrés marins, Ifremer, Presquîle du Vivier, 29840  Landunvez, France
Asma Sakka
Affiliation:
Département de biologie, Université Laval, Québec G1K7P4, Canada
Louis Legendre
Affiliation:
Département de biologie, Université Laval, Québec G1K7P4, Canada
Loana Addessi
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d’écologie marine, Université de Polynésie française, BP 6570, Faaa aéroport, Tahiti, French Polynesia
Robert Le Borgne
Affiliation:
Centre océanologique de Marseille, IRD, rue de la Batterie-des-Lions, 13007 Marseille, France
Loïc Charpy
Affiliation:
Centre océanologique de Marseille, IRD, rue de la Batterie-des-Lions, 13007 Marseille, France
Bruno Delesalle
Affiliation:
ESA 8046 CNRS, École pratique des hautes études, 52, avenue de Villeneuve, 66860  Perpignan cedex, France Criobe, BP 1013 Moorea, French Polynesia
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Abstract

Data concerning the planktonic food web and the farmed pearl oysters of the lagoon of Takapoto Atoll were assembled into a steady state model of carbon flows. A method of optimisation, using constraints from the literature, called ‘inverse analysis’ was chosen as the numerical tool for estimating the missing flow values. The resulting food web is characterised by: 1) high primary production, achieved by low phytoplankton biomass, 2) high production of non-living matter, especially as dissolved organic carbon, 3) low bacterial production, 4) zooplankton dominated by protozoa (biomass and processes) and mesozooplankton (processes), and 5) very low consumption of plankton by farmed bivalves compared to planktonic fluxes. When considering the whole lagoon, the farmed oysters (Pinctada margaritifera) and associated bivalves (Pinctada maculata) consume 0.24% of the planktonic gross primary production. In addition, the consumption by natural populations of the main benthic bivalves in this lagoon (Chama iostoma, Arca ventricosa, Pinctada margaritifera and Pinctada maculata) is also low compared to the high planktonic primary production (4.1%). The oyster farming in this lagoon is thus very far from being food-limited.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© Elsevier, IRD, Inra, Ifremer, Cemagref, CNRS, 2001

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