An outbreak of sea cucumbers hinders coral recruitment
| Autor: | Sheng Liu, Lei Jiang, Hui Huang, Laurence J. McCook, Yuyang Zhang, Jiansheng Lian |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
geography geography.geographical_feature_category biology Ecology 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology Coral Outbreak Sediment Pocillopora damicornis Coral reef Aquatic Science biology.organism_classification 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Sea cucumber Bay Reef |
| Zdroj: | Coral Reefs. 37:321-326 |
| ISSN: | 1432-0975 0722-4028 |
| Popis: | An outbreak of a small sessile sea cucumber, Ocnus sanya, occurred on the degraded Luhuitou coral reef in Sanya Bay, Hainan, China. This study explored the pattern of distribution of O. sanya on the reef and the impacts of the high abundance of O. sanya on post-settlement mortality of Pocillopora damicornis recruits. The density of O. sanya ranged from about 500 to over 2000 individuals m−2 with 10.95–23.69% cover on hard substrate. Terracotta tiles with O. sanya on the surface accumulated 19.7% more surface sediment than those without sea cucumbers. Post-settlement P. damicornis recruits had significantly higher mortality on terracotta tiles with O. sanya than those without O. sanya after 21 d. Overall, O. sanya appears to increase sediment stress and inhibit coral recruitment, exacerbating the degradation of Luhuitou Reef. This study raises the possibility that such novel outbreak species could contribute significant additional stress on coral reefs at larger scales. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|
Full text from SpringerLink