[Coral-List] Zoanthid (Paltythoa caribaeorum) overgrowth of corals

José Policarpo zepolicarpo at gmail.com
Mon Mar 10 10:04:43 EDT 2008


Hello Jan,

In Brazil there are yet few studies about P caribaeorum ecology, but
this zoanthid is reported as one of the most important benthic
component over a large scale of the brazilian coast. I have study P
caribaeorum influence on reef communities at a southeastern brazilian
site and also registered a range of 70/75% of covering on large
extension of some shallow and sheltered areas (<2-7m). In these
shallow areas, this species dominate most of avaiable space, despite
coralline articulate algae also presented high cover in some patches.
In deeper areas (9-12m), P caribaeorum  colonies are more sparse but
even on these areas we observed a competitive behaviour, especially
with the gorgonian Phyllogorgia dilatata and other cnidarians as
Mussismilia hispida and Siderastrea stellata.
The absence of specific predators and its tolerance to different
environmental variabilities seems to be the major factors to determine
P caribaeorum domination in brazilian reefs.

Actually I am still analyzing the results of this study and I'll be
very glad to discuss and compare these data briefly.

Cheers

José P. Mendonça Neto
Departamento de Biologia Marinha
Universidade Federal Fluminense
Niterói, Rio de Janeiro


On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 5:44 PM, Jan-Willem van Bochove
<jvb at coralcayconservation.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
>
>
>  I've noticed that P. caribaeorum, a colonial zoanthid which forms extensive
>  mats, is overtopping and smothering a large variety of scleractinian corals
>  in shallow reef environments in Tobago.
>
>  P. caribaeorum is an aggressive, fast growing and toxic zoanthid which seems
>  to stop at nothing and I have yet to see any significant predation on the
>  species. In a small, sheltered bay where most of our observations were made,
>  it forms the dominant substrate with over 75% cover in the shallows (2-5m).
>  We have also seen it overtopping massive corals in deeper waters.
>
>  I was wondering if anyone has or knows of any recent research done on the
>  zoanthid or has noticed its abundance elsewhere on such a scale. Other than
>  a paper presented at the ICRS of 1981 in Manila by Suchanek and Green, I
>  have not come across any literature dealing with inter-specific competition
>  with corals.
>
>
>
>  Images of the zoanthid overgrowing corals can be found on -
>
>
>
>  http://www.flickr.com/photos/23314528@N03/
>
>
>
>  Any feedback is appreciated.
>
>
>
>  Regards,
>
>
>
>  Jan
>
>
>
>  Reference -
>
>  Suchanek T.H., and Green, D.J., 1981. Interspecific Competition Between
>  Palythoa Caribaeorum and Other Sessile Invertebrates on St.Croix Reefs, U.S.
>  Virgin Islands. Proceedings of the Fourth International Coral Reef
>  Symposium, Manila, Vol. 2.
>
>  --
>  Jan-Willem van Bochove MSc
>  Chief Technical Advisor
>
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