Video

Cockles

Transcript

ASSOC PROF STEPHEN WING
Cockles play a very important role in the marine food web because they clean the water, and they make it so that phytoplankton don't bloom or become too abundant, and they keep the water from going eutrophic or full of phytoplankton. What happens when the water becomes full of phytoplankton is they can suck up all the oxygen and you can actually get fish kill, so cockles sort of dampen or reduce the possibility that you get these sorts of bad conditions occurring.

Rights: University of Waikato
Published:17 September 2009