Benthic Crustacea on coral reefs: a quantitative survey

Abstract

Benthic crustaceans are an important component of the coral reef fauna, yet our understanding of their ecological significance is incomplete. To determine the community structure, abundance, biomass and productivity of benthic Crustacea at Lizard Island, a mid-shelf reef on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, we investigated 5 major microhabitats: dead coral, coral rubble, sand, epilithic algal matrix (EAM) and fine-branching live coral. Crustacean communities differed significantly among habitats, with the exception of dead coral and coral rubble. Dead coral was the most important microhabitat type in terms of crustacean abundance (7838 ± 628 ind. 100 cm −2 , mean ± SE), biomass (0.75 ± 0.13 g m −2 , wet weight) and estimated productivity (0.17 ± 0.043 g 100 cm −2 yr −1 ash free dry weight). These values were 2 to 3 orders of magnitude greater than those for the least important habitats (EAM and fine-branching live coral). Despite their abundance, the average crustacean body length was just 0.79 ± 0.32 mm, largely due to the dominance of harpacticoid copepods. In contrast, decapods exhibited very low abundances, but yielded the greatest biomass and productivity and were particularly abundant in dead coral and coral rubble. The results highlight the importance of small crustaceans and dead coral microhabitats as valuable contributors to the trophic structure of coral reefs.

High prevalence of obligate coral-dwelling decapods on dead corals in the Chagos Archipelago, central Indian Ocean

“…Motile cryptofaunal species diversity estimates have been shown to be much higher on dead coral than on live coral microhabitats across a range of geographical regions (Patton 1994;Plaisance et al 2009;Enochs and Manzello 2012). Dead corals are also thought to be the most important microhabitats for crustacean abundance, biomass, and productivity (Kramer et al 2014). Pronounced differences in crustacean community structure patterns have been shown on similar microhabitats between different parts of the reef, e.g., lagoonal, reef slope, and reef flat (Peyrot-Clausade 1989;Plaisance et al 2011), as well as across the reef shelf (Klumpp et al 1988;Preston and Doherty 1990).…”

Distribution and species richness of caprellids (Crustacea: Amphipoda) from the Mexican Pacific

“…It is possible that these species present strong affinities to coral communities. The results of this study highlight the importance of reef ecosystems for caprellid diversity, potentially due to the provision of numerous microhabitats (including hydroids, algae, octocorals and coral rubble) which may promote species diversity Kramer et al, 2014). At this point, the caprellid biota is commonly distributed along the Mexican coast and probably the distributions of the species recorded may extend beyond this area.…”

Habitat selection of the coral-dwelling spinyhead blenny, Acanthemblemaria spinosa, at Curaçao, Dutch Caribbean

“…Curaçao has undergone much reef degradation over the recent decades and dead coral is abundantly present here (Vermeij 2012). A fifth of A. spinosa's diet consists of benthic, harpacticoid copepods (Clarke 1999), which are more abundant on dead coral than on live coral (Kramer et al 2014) and this may explain why many spinyhead blennies reside in dead coral.…”