[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
_______________________________________________
Coral-List mailing list
Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list


More information about the Coral-List mailing list