Linda Daniels

PhD student, commenced October 2009

Project

Resource partitioning and niche division among deposivores and suspensivores in the marine group Tellinacea.

I aim to test Levinton’s 1972 hypothesis, that deposivores partition resources to reduce competition, whereas suspensivores compete for the same niche. Predictions stemming from this hypothesis regarding community dynamics were supported by Warwick’s (1982) empirical work. I will test this hypothesis for the Tellinacea native to Ireland. I aim to empirically quantify the degree to which each species preferentially feeds on deposited detritus or on particles suspended in the water column. I will then develop a conceptual model with reference to Levinton’s hypothesis.

The project is based around Levinton’s hypothesis, supported by Warwick’s (1982) empirical work, that marine deposivores (deposit feeders that feed on the detritus that collects on the substratum at the bottom of water) tend to partition resources to reduce competition, whereas suspensivores (suspension feeders that feed on suspended matter and food particles from water) compete for the same niche. This hypothesis has significant impacts on the understanding of marine ecosystems. The work of Warwick (1982) and others have shed light on the matter, however there has not yet been a direct comparison between niche width, in terms of the range of particles sizes that each species consumes, and tendency to deposit or suspension feed for a group of species. Qualitative work on Levinton’s hypothesis was carried out by Olafsson (1986) supported that food is a limiting factor in deposit feeding communities but not in suspension feeding communities.
The consequences of Levinton’s hypothesis are:
Niche width is broad for suspensivores and narrow for deposivores.
Food selectivity is high for deposivores but low for suspensivores.
There is high dominance in suspensivore communities and low dominance in deposivore communities.

Personal interests

I am interested in marine biodiversity, bivalve ecophysiology and the ecology of marine ecosystems. My research in the past includes UREKA 2007, when I studied feeding competition between two bivalve species, my moderatorship project, 2008, in which I examined the biodiversity of Malahide estuary "Investigation of the effect of a marina in Malahide Estuary" and my MSc project titled"Evaluation of the pollution status of three sites in Dublin Bay using a multibiomarker approach with Mytilus edulis as a bioindicator". I completed my MSc in biodiversity and conservation in 2009. I was elected as an environmental representative on the Southeastern river basin district advisory council for the Irish Sustainable Water Network 2010.

Publications

Daniels, L. C. E., Holmes, J. M. C. and Wilson, J. G. (2009). Paradoxostoma angliorum (Crustacea: Ostracoda) and
Monocorophium acherusicum (Crustacea: Amphipoda), new to Ireland from Malahide Marina, Co. Dublin. Irish Naturalists' Journal Volume 30. Part 1. pp 32-34

Postal address

Email                        

danielsl@tcd.ie