Comparative diversity of anemone-associated fishes and decapod crustaceans in a Belizean coral reef and seagrass system

Brooker, Rohan M.; Feeney, William E.; Sih, Tiffany L.; Ferrari, Maud C. O.; Chivers, Douglas P.

doi:10.1007/s12526-019-00993-5

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…For instance, individuals of several fish species are associated with sea anemones, which provide protection to small-bodied species or small individuals within species. Considering that colonies of sea anemones are highly clumped, the spatial distribution of different fish species follows the availability of the anemones, resulting in the formation of MSA (Brooker et al, 2019). This explanation, known as the "resource limitation hypothesis, " assumes that individuals of different species share similar requirements (e.g., protection) and that the risk of antagonistic interactions (i.e., cannibalism and predation) is low.…”

Section: Reproductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benefits and Costs of Mixed-Species Aggregations in Harvestmen (Arachnida: Opiliones)

et al. 2022

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Many animals form aggregations with individuals of the same species (single-species aggregations, SSA). Less frequently, individuals may also aggregate with individuals of other species (mixed-species aggregations, MSA). Although the benefits and costs of SSA have been intensively studied, the same is not true for MSA. Here, we first review the cases of MSA in harvestmen, an arachnid order in which the records of MSA are more frequent than other arthropod orders. We then propose several benefits and costs of MSA in harvestmen, and contrast them with those of SSA. Second, using field-gathered data we describe gregariousness in seven species of Prionostemma harvestmen from Costa Rica. These species form MSA, but individuals are also found solitarily or in SSA. We tested one possible benefit and one possible cost of gregariousness in Prionostemma harvestmen. Regarding the benefit, we hypothesized that individuals missing legs would be more exposed to predation than eight-legged individuals and thus they should be found preferentially in aggregations, where they would be more protected from predators. Our data, however, do not support this hypothesis. Regarding the cost, we hypothesized that gregariousness increases the chances of parasitism. We found no support for this hypothesis either because both mite prevalence and infestation intensity did not differ between solitary or aggregated individuals. Additionally, the type of aggregation (SSA or MSA) was not associated with the benefit or the cost we explored. This lack of effect may be explained by the fluid membership of the aggregations, as we found high turnover over time in the number of individuals and species composition of the aggregations. In conclusion, we hope our review and empirical data stimulate further studies on MSA, which remains one of the most elusive forms of group living in animals.

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Section: Reproductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benefits and Costs of Mixed-Species Aggregations in Harvestmen (Arachnida: Opiliones)

et al. 2022

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“…This species of ball anemone lives near coastlines in shallow reefs, which are currently under threat from coral bleaching and fishing for "exotic" species for sale to tourists. Within their natural habitats, anemones are "common ecosystem engineers, providing microhabitats for complex assemblages of associated species" (Brooker et al 2019(Brooker et al , p. 2609). In the novel's future, the anemone kept by Esther Escudero in a jar is one of the last of its kind, a signifier of species extinction that symbolises the cataclysmic loss of biodiversity in the Caribbean Sea resulting from environmental degradation and climate change.…”

Section: The Condylactis Gigantea and The Long Apocalypse In La Mucama De Omicunlémentioning

confidence: 99%

“The One Who Comes from the Sea”: Marine Crisis and the New Oceanic Weird in Rita Indiana’s La mucama de Omicunlé (2015)

Deckard

Oloff

2020

Humanities

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Caribbean literature is permeated by submarine aesthetics registering the environmental histories of colonialism and capitalism. In this essay, we contribute to the emergent discipline of critical ocean studies by delineating the contours of the “Oceanic Weird”. We begin with a brief survey of Old Weird tales by authors such as William Hope Hodgson and, most famously, H.P. Lovecraft, who were writing in the context of a world still dominated by European colonialism, but increasingly reshaped by an emergent US imperialism. We explore how these tales are both ecophobic and racialized, teeming with fears of deep geological time and the alterity of both nonhuman life and non-European civilizations, and argue that they register the oil-fuelled, militarised emergence of US imperial naval dominance. Subsequently, we turn to Rita Indiana’s neo-Lovecraftian novel, La mucama de Omicunlé [Tentacle, trans. Achy Obejas 2019], set in the Dominican Republic, as a key example of the contemporary efflorescence of ecocritical New Weird Caribbean fiction. We explore how the novel refashions Oceanic Weird tropes to represent the intertwining of marine ecological crisis in an era of global climate emergency with forms of oppression rooted in hierarchies of gender, sexuality, race, and class.

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“…On coral reefs in the Tropical Western Atlantic (TWA), large sea anemones (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Actiniaria) form the hub of diverse multi-level mutualisms (Briones-Fourzán et al 2012, Cantrell et al 2015, Huebner et al 2012a, 2019, Titus et al 2015a, 2017a, 2019, Caves et al 2018). Sea anemones in the TWA serve as hosts to a diverse assemblage of over 15 crustacean species, many of which belong to lineages that have independently evolved symbiotic lifestyles (Briones-Fourzán et al 2012, Colombara et al 2017, Titus and Daly 2017, Horka et al 2018, Brooker et al 2019, Huebner et al 2019). While some of these crustaceans are highly specialized obligate mutualists on a single host anemone species, others are obligate symbionts of sea anemones broadly but retain host species flexibility, and some are non-obligate, facultative anemone dwellers (Briones-Fourzán et al 2012, Titus and Daly 2017, Huebner et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stable isotopes disentangle niche partitioning and species co-occurrence in a multi-level marine mutualism

Titus,

Froehlich,

Vondriska

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Ecologists have long sought general explanations for the co-occurrence of ecologically similar taxa. Niche theory explains co-occurrence via functional differences among taxa that reduce competition and promote resource partitioning. Alternatively, the unified neutral theory of biodiversity and biogeography suggests that co-occurrence can be attributed to stochastic processes, and thus, presupposes that ecologically similar species that occur in sympatry are functionally analogous. We test these alternative hypotheses in multiple dimensions using the most diverse crustacean-sea anemone symbiosis from coral reefs in the Tropical Western Atlantic. δ13C and δ15N stable isotope analyses of six crustacean symbionts that co-occur around the host anemoneBartholomea annulataexhibit highly differentiated isotopic niche space spanning three trophic levels. As multiple crustacean species within the symbiosis have been documented as cleaners that remove parasites from reef fishes, we extended our investigation into the broader cleaner community. Our stable isotope analyses of cleaners shows that only Pederson’s cleaner shrimpAncylomenes pedersoniexhibits δ15N isotopic signatures that are consistent with a dedicated cleaning lifestyle. Co-occurring species that have been previously described to clean reef fishes such asPericlimenes yucatanicus, Stenopus hispidus,andStenorhynchus seticornisall occupy trophic levels well belowAn. pedersoni. Taken together, our data are consistent with the expectations of niche theory: co-occurring symbiotic crustaceans have highly partitioned niche space with low levels of functional redundancy. Finally, our findings reinforce and extend the ecological importance ofAn. pedersonias likely the only dedicated cleaner shrimp on coral reefs in the Tropical Western Atlantic.

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Comparative diversity of anemone-associated fishes and decapod crustaceans in a Belizean coral reef and seagrass system

Cited by 13 publications

References 57 publications

Benefits and Costs of Mixed-Species Aggregations in Harvestmen (Arachnida: Opiliones)

Benefits and Costs of Mixed-Species Aggregations in Harvestmen (Arachnida: Opiliones)

“The One Who Comes from the Sea”: Marine Crisis and the New Oceanic Weird in Rita Indiana’s La mucama de Omicunlé (2015)

Stable isotopes disentangle niche partitioning and species co-occurrence in a multi-level marine mutualism

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