Allometric scaling of physiological rates in the New Zealand geoduck clam, Panopea zelandica

The New Zealand geoduck clam Panopea zelandica (Quoy and Gaimard, 1835) is among the largest burrowing clams throughout the world. However, the effects of size scaling on physiology have not been studied for any geoduck species. In this study, we determined the allometric coefficients of respiration rate (RR) and clearance rate (CR) for P. zelandica. The allometric coefficients (β) of RR and CR in P. zelandica were 0.73 ± 0.03 and 0.62 ± 0.07, respectively. Since the clearance rate and oxygen consumption of bivalves are known to scale with dry weight, these coefficients may be used as mass exponent correction in physiological studies for P. zelandica.