Stomatopod kill

Justin McDonald justin.mcdonald at ntu.edu.au
Wed Nov 14 21:57:29 EST 2001


Greetings all

I have been following the discussion of mass mortality in stomatopods with
some interest. I was wondering if anybody had any imagery of these events
that they wouldn't mind being used for undergraduate lectures. Images would
of course be referenced appropriately. 
Many thanks
cheerio

Justin

<(((((<    <(((((<    <(((((<    <(((((<    <(((((<    <(((((<    <(((((<
<(((((<    <(((((<

Justin McDonald (President - Australian Marine Sciences Association NT
Branch )
School of Biological, Environmental & Chemical Sciences
Northern Territory University
Darwin, NT.   Australia   0909

Telephone: +61 (0)8 8946 6863
Facsimile: +61 (0)8 8946 6847
Email:j_mcdonald at site.ntu.edu.au

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Roy Caldwell [SMTP:4roy at socrates.berkeley.edu]
> Sent:	Saturday, 3 November 2001 02:42
> To:	coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> Subject:	Stomatopod kill
> 
> With respect to the recent report of mass mortality of stomatopods in 
> the  Seychelles, I can offer the following guesses.
> 
> First, I suspect that from the numbers, size and color information, 
> this is (these are) gonodactylids, probably Gonodactylus smithii, G. 
> viridis or G. chiragra or some combination of green, low intertidal 
> stomatopods.   I have seen three mass mortalities of stomatopods 
> during my field work, one in Panama, one in Australia, and one in 
> Guam.  There was also the report of a fresh water event in Kaneohe 
> Bay by Kinzie.  In all three cases that I witnessed, there was an 
> extreme low tide during the day (we are just past a full moon) 
> coupled with heavy rain and then bright, hot sun.  This can cause a 
> lens of very hot, oxygen poor, fresh water to develop on the exposed 
> reef.   Stomatopods are tough, but when it gets hot, they often will 
> leave their cavities and try to dig in under rocks, coral heads, etc. 
> to reach cooler, more saline conditions.   If the tide is still out 
> and there is enough hot fresh water on an exposed reef, this is 
> fatal.  One slight variation on this theme that I one saw on a 
> mudflat in Thailand was rain and bright sun at low tide.  As the tide 
> came in, the hot, fresh water being pushed ahead was very hot - 44 C. 
> Many of the burrowing squillids and lysiosquillids vacated their 
> burrows when the hot water hit and most perished.
> 
> It is hard to tell from this report how wide spread the phenomenon 
> was.  If it occurred over a wide area, then my scenario is unlikely. 
> If it were on just a few adjacent islands, it is more likely.  I 
> suppose a red tide or other biological explanation is possible, 
> although I haven't ever heard of this effecting stomatopods on a 
> massive scale.
> 
> I would be happy to help identify the species, etc. if more 
> information can be provided.  Too bad there isn't an emergency fund 
> to fly stomatopod biologists to such hotspots.
> 
> Roy
> -- 
> ***************************************
> Roy L. Caldwell
> Professor of Integrative Biology
> Department of Integrative Biology
> University of California at Berkeley
> Berkeley, CA  94720-3140
> USA
> 
> Phone (office):  (510) 642-1391
> Phone (lab):      (510) 643-5448
> Fax:       (510) 643-6264
> Email:     4roy at socrates.berkeley.edu
> http://ib.berkeley.edu/faculty/Caldwell,RL.html
> ***************************************
> --============_-1207401387==_ma============
> Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii"
> 
> <!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">
> <html><head><style type="text/css"><!--
> blockquote, dl, ul, ol, li { padding-top: 0 ; padding-bottom: 0 }
>  --></style><title>Stomatopod kill</title></head><body>
> <div>With respect to the recent report of mass mortality of
> stomatopods in the&nbsp;<font size="-1"> Seychelles</font>, I can
> offer the following guesses.</div>
> <div><br></div>
> <div>First, I suspect that from the numbers, size and color
> information, this is (these are) gonodactylids, probably Gonodactylus
> smithii, G. viridis or G. chiragra or some combination of green, low
> intertidal stomatopods.&nbsp;&nbsp; I have seen three mass mortalities
> of stomatopods during my field work, one in Panama, one in Australia,
> and one in Guam.&nbsp; There was also the report of a fresh water
> event in Kaneohe Bay by Kinzie.&nbsp; In all three cases that I
> witnessed, there was an extreme low tide during the day (we are just
> past a full moon) coupled with heavy rain and then bright, hot sun.&nbsp;
> This can cause a lens of very hot, oxygen poor, fresh water to develop
> on the exposed reef.&nbsp;&nbsp; Stomatopods are tough, but when it
> gets hot, they often will leave their cavities and try to dig in under
> rocks, coral heads, etc. to reach cooler, more saline
> conditions.&nbsp;&nbsp; If the tide is still out and there is enough
> hot fresh water on an exposed reef, this is fatal.&nbsp; One slight
> variation on this theme that I one saw on a mudflat in Thailand was
> rain and bright sun at low tide.&nbsp; As the tide came in, the hot,
> fresh water being pushed ahead was very hot - 44 C.&nbsp; Many of the
> burrowing squillids and lysiosquillids vacated their burrows when the
> hot water hit and most perished.</div>
> <div><br></div>
> <div>It is hard to tell from this report how wide spread the
> phenomenon was.&nbsp; If it occurred over a wide area, then my
> scenario is unlikely.&nbsp; If it were on just a few adjacent islands,
> it is more likely.&nbsp; I suppose a red tide or other biological
> explanation is possible, although I haven't ever heard of this
> effecting stomatopods on a massive scale.</div>
> <div><br></div>
> <div>I would be happy to help identify the species, etc. if more
> information can be provided.&nbsp; Too bad there isn't an emergency
> fund to fly stomatopod biologists to such hotspots.</div>
> <div><br></div>
> <div>Roy</div>
> <x-sigsep><pre>-- 
> </pre></x-sigsep>
> <div>***************************************<br>
> Roy L. Caldwell<br>
> Professor of Integrative Biology<br>
> Department of Integrative Biology<br>
> University of California at Berkeley<br>
> Berkeley, CA&nbsp; 94720-3140<br>
> USA<br>
> <br>
> Phone (office):&nbsp; (510) 642-1391<br>
> Phone (lab):&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; (510) 643-5448<br>
> Fax:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; (510) 643-6264<br>
> Email:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 4roy at socrates.berkeley.edu<br>
> http://ib.berkeley.edu/faculty/Caldwell,RL.html<br>
> ***************************************</div>
> </body>
> </html>
> --============_-1207401387==_ma============--
> 
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