Daily ration estimates and comparative study of food consumption in nine species of deep-water decapod crustaceans of the NW Mediterranean

Estimates of the daily rdtion consumed by 9 species of decapod crustaceans were obtained from 2 deep-water samplings over the middle and lower continental slope of the W Mediterranean. The dally ratlons obtained varied by an order of magn~tude from the slow-moving, crab-like species (<0.1 g dry food per 100 g predator body weight) to the actively swimming mesopelagic shrimps (>1.0 g dry food per 100 g predator body weight) A multiva.riate analys~s allowed us to relate the variab~l~ty in daily ration estimates to the functional morphology and ecology of the s p e c ~e s considered.The functional morphology and ecology of the species studied are defined In terms of body shape, swimming capability, trophic diversity and spatial distribution.We found that body shape (ratio of carapace length to carapace width) and trophic diversity (H') account for most of the variability in the amount of food consu~ned by derapods.The food consumption pattern established for our decapod crustaceans 1s conlpared to a s1mila.rpattern reported for deep-water fishes