[Coral-List] Black cyanobacterisponge, Terpios hishinota, outbreak in, coral reefs and geographic information needed (Allen Chen)
Thomas Le Berre
thomas at seamarc.com
Thu Feb 19 03:06:56 EST 2009
Dear Allen,
We also have lots of Terpios in the Maldives, and I find it quite
alarming. I have seen it in 2005 in some places, but a lot in Baa Atoll
in June. They tend to be more abundant in reefs with a better coral
cover, and usually more developed on the parts of the reef where the
current is going along the reef. Typically, the main forcings (currents
and winds) are in the east-west direction here, and they will colonized
more the northern and southern sides of the reef. This could be linked
to the way they propagate or alternatively they may also require calmer
conditions to spread. They look strong and will spread on many different
species of corals, covering almost entirely large patches.
This could also be related, we have other types of invasions by
zoanthids (Z. mantoni), which does not seem to actually kill the corals,
but probably hinders coral recruitment, and corallimorphs (Discosoma
sp.), which kills some species of corals.These would probably have
colonized dead areas after the 1998 bleaching, whereas the Terpios seems
more abundant on the reefs that are recovering the best (again, in Baa
atoll). It seems important to have a better look into this.
Cheers,
Thomas Le Berre
Managing Director
Seamarc Pvt Ltd
M. Maya, Gandhakoali Magu
Male', Rep of Maldives
www.reefscapers.com
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