[Coral-List] Crabs protect corals
martin.pecheux at free.fr
martin.pecheux at free.fr
Wed Oct 1 10:22:30 EDT 2014
Dear Douglas,
Yes, the story was known. In particular Glynn (Glynn, 1985, Mar Ecol Prog Ser 26, 295-300 and Glynn et al, 1985, Biol Bull 168, 276-284) describe the crustacean behavior, pulling and pushing the spines of Acantaster ; the story is more instructive : following the 1983 El Nino mass bleaching, the crab Trapezia loosed up to 80% of their lipids and quit the bleached/dead corals. And so, without the crutaceans guards of the pocilloporids which make the rim of the lagoon, Acantaster penetrate it and devasted it. A fine story about ecological complexity...
Tchuss,
Martin Pecheux
http://martin-pecheux.fr
----- Mail original -----
De: "Douglas Fenner" <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>
À: "coral list" <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Envoyé: Mardi 30 Septembre 2014 21:54:50
Objet: [Coral-List] Crabs protect corals
Crabs protect corals from voracious starfish
http://news.sciencemag.org/plants-animals/2014/09/crabs-protect-corals-voracious-starfish
The article contains a link to the original paper, which is open-access.
As the authors of the original paper state, it was already well known that
there are crabs that protect corals, but this paper adds some new
information.
I point this article out, to simply let people know that the short popular
article and original paper exist, I'm neither endorsing nor criticizing
them.
Cheers, Doug
--
Douglas Fenner
Contractor with Ocean Associates, Inc.
PO Box 7390
Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799 USA
phone 1 684 622-7084
"belief in climate change is optional, participation is not."
belief in evolution is optional, use of antibiotics that bacteria have not
evolved resistance to is recommended.
website: http://independent.academia.edu/DouglasFenner
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