Energetic cost derived of short-term starvation on marine crustacean Palaemon elegans

Abstract

Starvation has a major impact on physiological processes in marine plankton and, in turn, these processes have a major impact on the energy transfer through marine ecosystems. How starvation changes different aspects of the energy transfer has been understudied because planktologists have largely relied on biomass fractionation as a research tool. Here, with a caridean shrimp, Palaemon elegans, we experiment with the cellular energy allocation approach (CEA index), a new index that is calculated as the ratio between energy available (Ea), to energy consumption (Ec). It allows us to evaluate the net energy budget (Verslycke and Janssen, 2002). We analyzed the effect of 72 hours of starvation on the CEA index, the respiratory electron transport system activity (ETS), and on the shrimps’ lipids (LIP), carbohydrates (CARB) and proteins (PROT) to help further our understanding on the energy transfer in the shrimp.