Volumen 43 - Número 2: 391-398 | 2008
Article

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Effect of condition index on allometric relationships of clearance rate in Mytilus galloprovincialis Lamarck, 1819 

Ramón Filgueira¹, Uxío Labarta¹ and María José Fernández-Reiriz^1*

¹Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas, C/Eduardo Cabello 6, 36208 Vigo, Spain

*This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The allometric relationships between clearance rate (CR) and length and CR and weight show considerable variability in the literature. Nonetheless, they have been used routinely as references to evaluate and criticize methodologies and experimental results. Two experiments were designed to test the incidence of the condition index on these allometric relationships in Mytilus galloprovincialis. The results reveal a significant effect of this index on the allometric relationship in which weight was the dependent variable, which limits the use of this allometry to the particular conditions of each experiment.

Key words: Allometric scaling exponent, normalization constant, gill area, bivalve