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Herbivorous damselfishes expand their territories after causing white scars on Porites corals
Turf algae become the most abundant benthic group on coral reefs after mass coral bleaching. By defending feeding territories, damselfishes enhance the growth of turf algae in so-called algal farms and affect coral communities both directly and indirectly. We found several white scars (i.e., bite le...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7527513/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32999358 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73232-8 |
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author | Hata, Hiroki Takano, Shota Masuhara, Hiroyuki |
author_facet | Hata, Hiroki Takano, Shota Masuhara, Hiroyuki |
author_sort | Hata, Hiroki |
collection | PubMed |
description | Turf algae become the most abundant benthic group on coral reefs after mass coral bleaching. By defending feeding territories, damselfishes enhance the growth of turf algae in so-called algal farms and affect coral communities both directly and indirectly. We found several white scars (i.e., bite lesions) on massive Porites colonies around feeding territories. In this study, we examined the occurrence of white scars on corals and their function in coral–algal competition at the boundaries between algal farms of two damselfish species—the intensive farmer Stegastes nigricans, and the intermediate farmer S. lividus—and adjacent Porites corals for 3 years around Okinawa Island, Japan. White scars occurred on Porites colonies only adjacent to the territories of both damselfish species. Of the white scars on corals around S. nigricans territories, 73% of the area was covered by algae within 2 weeks, while the remaining was re-covered by Porites tissues. The coral–algal boundaries encroached further into areas of coral when the area of white scars were larger. These results suggest that both intensive and intermediate farmers bite adjacent Porites colonies causing white scars on corals, and expand their territories onto corals using algae-covered white scars as stepping stones. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7527513 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-75275132020-10-02 Herbivorous damselfishes expand their territories after causing white scars on Porites corals Hata, Hiroki Takano, Shota Masuhara, Hiroyuki Sci Rep Article Turf algae become the most abundant benthic group on coral reefs after mass coral bleaching. By defending feeding territories, damselfishes enhance the growth of turf algae in so-called algal farms and affect coral communities both directly and indirectly. We found several white scars (i.e., bite lesions) on massive Porites colonies around feeding territories. In this study, we examined the occurrence of white scars on corals and their function in coral–algal competition at the boundaries between algal farms of two damselfish species—the intensive farmer Stegastes nigricans, and the intermediate farmer S. lividus—and adjacent Porites corals for 3 years around Okinawa Island, Japan. White scars occurred on Porites colonies only adjacent to the territories of both damselfish species. Of the white scars on corals around S. nigricans territories, 73% of the area was covered by algae within 2 weeks, while the remaining was re-covered by Porites tissues. The coral–algal boundaries encroached further into areas of coral when the area of white scars were larger. These results suggest that both intensive and intermediate farmers bite adjacent Porites colonies causing white scars on corals, and expand their territories onto corals using algae-covered white scars as stepping stones. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-09-30 /pmc/articles/PMC7527513/ /pubmed/32999358 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73232-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Article Hata, Hiroki Takano, Shota Masuhara, Hiroyuki Herbivorous damselfishes expand their territories after causing white scars on Porites corals |
title | Herbivorous damselfishes expand their territories after causing white scars on Porites corals |
title_full | Herbivorous damselfishes expand their territories after causing white scars on Porites corals |
title_fullStr | Herbivorous damselfishes expand their territories after causing white scars on Porites corals |
title_full_unstemmed | Herbivorous damselfishes expand their territories after causing white scars on Porites corals |
title_short | Herbivorous damselfishes expand their territories after causing white scars on Porites corals |
title_sort | herbivorous damselfishes expand their territories after causing white scars on porites corals |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7527513/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32999358 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73232-8 |
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