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Ash and Calorie Determinations of Sponge and Opisthobranch Tissues
Author(s) -
Paine Robert T.
Publication year - 1964
Publication title -
ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.144
H-Index - 294
eISSN - 1939-9170
pISSN - 0012-9658
DOI - 10.2307/1933856
Subject(s) - muffle furnace , value (mathematics) , calorimeter (particle physics) , calorie , zoology , caloric theory , mineralogy , mathematics , chemistry , biology , environmental science , ecology , statistics , physics , biochemistry , endocrinology , calcination , detector , optics , catalysis
Studies on the caloric value of sponge and opisthobranch tissue have been used to indicate 2 actual sources of error in determining an organism's cal/ash—free g value. If the skeleton is hydrated, this water is not removed at normal drying temperatures (100°C) when the skeletal material is CaCO 3 , and is only partly removed from SiO 2 skeletons. The cal/ash—free g value is seriously underestimated in these cases. In addition, if the per cent of ash is determined by weight difference in the calorimeter, or at too great a temperature in a muffle furnace, the value may again be underestimated. Appropriate corrections for these errors bring values for some opisthobranches, which would otherwise be inexplicably low, into general agreement with other published values.