Energy Budget and Carrying Capacity of the Surf Clam, Mactra veneriformis and the Estuarine Clam, Potamocorbula laevis in Geligang, Liaodong Bay

China is the largest aquaculture country in the world, with mariculture production accounting for more than 50% of the total production in the world. In 2021, the production of shellfish in China increased to 1.546 × 107 tons, accounting for approximately 70% of the mariculture production. Filter-feeding bivalves such as oysters and clams are the main species of mariculture in China. In addition to the important economic values, filter-feeding bivalves influence ecosystem nutrient cycling through feeding, metabolism, and biodeposition and play roles in increasing the water transparency, preventing harmful algal blooms, controlling eutrophication, and promoting carbon storage. The physiological activities of filter-feeding bivalves, especially ingestion and metabolism, form the link between planktonic and benthic ecosystems, and their physiological indicators are the basic parameters for evaluating the energy budget and carrying capacity. However, although researchers have conducted a series of studies on the physiological activities of filter-feeding bivalves, some limitations in monitoring and the subsequent data processing remain. Therefore, it is urgent to improve the measurement of the physiological activities of filter-feeding bivalves, including the accuracy of data collection and the rigorousness of data processing, to ensure the accuracy of the experimental results.Mudflats are located in the interaction zone between the land and sea and are important areas for the habitat, growth, and reproduction of several macrobenthic organisms. As the dominant species of macrobenthic communities, mudflat-buried shellfish play a crucial role in the material and energy flows of a mudflat ecosystem. However, recently, with the expansion of shellfish aquaculture, the mudflat environment has been deteriorating accompanied by a series of ecological problems, such as high mortality and slow growth rates and alteration in the structure of phytoplankton community, which has led to significant losses to the shellfish aquaculture industry. Therefore, the ability of the ecosystem to support shellfish production must be evaluated, and its carrying capacity must be estimated. Generally, numerical methods for estimating the carrying capacity of shellfish based on food limiting indicators include physical-biological ecosystem modelling, trophodynamic modeling, and energy balance modeling. Current methodologies for estimating shellfish carrying capacity are divided into two ma