Sometimes it is not possible to obtain xylene or other elements to calculate the internal volume of a shell. Some measures such as height, width and length are easy to obtain and are not invasive. These measures are commonly used in equations with some coefficients in order to calculate volume for insects and others animals. I wonder if there are equations to calculate the volume of bivalves.
You can easily measure the volume of the bivalve by water displacement method (it works well for individual larger bivalves, and for the smaller ones you can use pools of similar-sized animals and dived the total volume by the number of animals you have used). If you want to know the internal volume without the soft tissues, you can measure soft tissue mass and subtract it from the volume (tissue density is ~1, so 1 g tissue is ~ 1 ml). I hope this helps.
Sorry, I forgot to add that you will then need to also measure the volume of empty valves (also by water displacement) and subtract it from the total volume.
Hi
I think it depends also on what species you are trying to measure. Pacific oysters for example are very variable in the appearence and development of the shell and internal volume thus an equation would not be able to describe internal volume accurately. For species with a more regular shape, for example blue mussels I think developing a model would be easier. As you mention invasivenes of the methods I assume that you want to be able to determine the volume without killing the animal?
Thanks to all. Yes Åsa Strand, I´m trying to obtain some measures to avoid killing those bivalves or by using some substances when no exist other alternative. Inna M Sokolova, thanks!!! I feel embarrassed, the solution you offer me is simple and very useful, I do not understand why I had not think in it before. thank you very much again. Because my mussel had a regular shape, I´m going to try displacement of water and current measures to develop a model. Thanks to all
Maybe you can find our method interesting for your investigations: Article Age structure, carbonate production and shell loss rate in a...
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