ABSTRACT
Odile Dedourge-Geffard, Frédéric Palais, Alain Geffard, and Claude Amiard-Triquet
All biochemical and physiological processes in the life of organisms depend strictly on their energy metabolism. Organisms obtain the energy necessary for life from an external source, in the form of light energy in the case of autotrophic organisms or in the form of chemical energy contained in food for heterotrophic organisms. In the case of heterotrophic organisms, the obtaining of energy is controlled by feeding and the subsequent breakdown of food to release the energy contained (assimilation) (Figure 11.1). Feeding is controlled by two categories of factors: on one hand the availability of food species, and on the other the capacity of the feeder to capture and to consume this food. Decrease in feeding can result either from an avoidance behavior toward a food recognized as contaminated or from physiological disturbance limiting, for example, locomotory activity.
