Many studies have investigated feeding in aquatic animals (e.g. to devise food webs, to interpret predator-prey interactions, to calculate filtration capacity), but less attention has been paid to egestion and the production of faeces, especially in benthic habitats. The amount of material egested depends on the amount of food ingested, its quality and the efficiency of digestion and absorption. Predators eat infrequently and digest a high proportion of their diet (WOTTON 1994). In contrast, collectors gather dissolved and particulate organic matter (DOM and POM), usually digest only a small fraction, and then egest the remainder. Thus, collectors are the most important producers of faecal material in aquatic systems (WOTTON MALMQVIST 2001, WOTTON et al. 2003).
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