Brown shrimp, Crangon crangon, inhabit highly productive sandy and muddy grounds of the southern North Sea. The stomachs of the shrimp contain variable and often high numbers of sediment grains. The function of sediment grains inside the stomach and the purpose of their ingestion are only poorly understood. We tested in laboratory experiments whether sediment and associated organic material complement the natural food of C. crangon or if sand grains may be used by the shrimp to support trituration and maceration of ingested food. The shrimp showed no notable preference for sediment with natural organic content over sediment with reduced organic content, limited ingestion of sediment upon starvation, and no additional uptake of sand grains after feeding. Instead, C. crangon took up sediment only while feeding on regular food, suggesting that sand grains are not ingested intentionally but rather incidentally as a side effect of hasty gobbling. This conclusion is supported by the highly variable uptake of sand grains among individuals. Under experimental conditions, sand grains from sediments do not seem to have a crucial function in food processing and digestion in brown shrimp.

布朗虾（Crangon crangon）栖息在北海南部高产的沙质和泥泞的土地上。虾的胃中含有多种多样且往往数量众多的沉积物颗粒。胃内的沉积物颗粒的功能及其摄入的目的还鲜为人知。我们在实验室实验中测试了沉积物和相关的有机物质是否补充了C. crangon的天然食物，或者虾是否可以使用沙粒来支持食用食物的研磨和浸软。虾对天然有机含量的沉积物没有明显的偏爱，而对有机物含量降低的沉积物，饥饿饥饿的沉积物的摄取有限，并且喂食后没有额外的沙粒吸收。反而，C. crangon仅在以常规食物为食时才吸收沉积物，这表明沙粒不是故意摄入的，而是偶然吞噬的副作用。该结论得到个体中沙粒高度可变的吸收的支持。在实验条件下，来自沉积物的沙粒似乎在褐虾的食品加工和消化中没有关键作用。