2026/03/21 by Marine Vandenberghe, Gonçalo M. Marques, Ann Christin Andersen +4 · 1 voice
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Marine Biology and Ecology Research #Marine Bivalve and Aquaculture Studies #Ocean Acidification Effects and Responses
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41598-026-41176-0
openalex publication_date 2026/03/21 · openalex created_date 2026/03/22 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
For the first time, two Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) models were developed for a chemosymbiotic deep-sea vesicomyid clam. A classical DEB model was applied and then an innovative DEB model was developed (named "farming"). The models were parameterized using data on host and symbionts, including original unpublished data. In the farming model the digestion of the sulfur-oxidizing bacterial symbionts for host nutrition was explicitly modeled. Unexpected results were obtained regarding the dynamics of host and symbionts with this model: the host appears to forgo a maximal ingestion for a lower and stable ingestion, revealing a new kind of homeostasis. Moreover, when the clam is adult, most of the oxygen consumed by the chemosynthetic symbiosis was predicted to be by the symbionts. A high host energy maintenance flux was predicted and consistent with the likely high energy demand of host ion homeostasis mechanisms to cope with symbiont protons and sulfates release.