Interaction among sea urchins in response to food cues

Sun, Jiangnan; Zhao, Zihe; Zhao, Chong; Yu, Yushi; Ding, Peng; Ding, Jingyun; Yang, Mingfang; Chi, Xiaomei; Hu, Fangyuan; Chang, Yaqing

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-89471-2

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(33 reference statements)

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“…Spreading out from the aggregations is an important behavioral process for sea urchins and sea cucumbers to reduce the competition within groups 52 , 53 . We thus calculated the distance of the animals from the center of the tank at the beginning and the end of the experiment to analyze their centrifugal movement.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Macroalgae and interspecific alarm cues regulate behavioral interactions between sea urchins and sea cucumbers

Sun

Zhao

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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Sea urchins and sea cucumbers are mutually beneficial organisms in kelp ecosystem. As herbivores, sea urchins process kelp through feeding and egestion, providing inaccessible food for benthic consumers such as sea cucumbers. Sea urchins in turn profit from the sediment cleaned by sea cucumbers. However, behavioral interactions between them remain poorly understood, which greatly hampers our understanding on the relationship between ecologically important benthic species in marine ecosystems and the regulating mechanism. The present study investigated behavioral interactions between sea urchins Strongylocentrotus intermedius and sea cucumbers Apostichopus japonicus in laboratory conditions. We revealed that the presence of sea urchins caused significant higher speed movement of A. japonicus. Interestingly, the negative effects of S. intermedius on A. japonicus were significantly reduced in the shared macroalgal area. For the first time, we found the interspecific responses to alarm cues between sea cucumbers and sea urchins. Conspecific responses were significantly larger than the interspecific responses in both sea urchins and sea cucumbers. This indicates that interspecific response to alarm cues is an efficient approach to anti-predation and coexistence in mutually beneficial organisms. The present study shed light on the interspecific relationships and coexistence between sea urchins and sea cucumbers in kelp ecosystem.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Macroalgae and interspecific alarm cues regulate behavioral interactions between sea urchins and sea cucumbers

Sun

Zhao

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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“…The duration and frequency of three states were recorded, and each state was taken as a sample for data analysis. Movement speed (v) and displacement (d) of sea cucumber during three states were calculated as follows [29]:…”

Section: Experiments 1: Movement Pattern Of a Japonicus Without Food Cuementioning

confidence: 99%

Swing Regulates Movement Direction in the Sea Cucumber Apostichopus japonicus in the Presence of Food Cue: New Insights into Movement Patterns

Zhao,

Sun,

et al. 2023

Animals

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Regulating movement direction is essential in the locomotion of animals. Sea cucumbers, as eyeless animals, do not have eyes for the perception of the surrounding environment and food. They have a unique way of swinging their bodies when a food cue is detected, although they lack an important perceptual tool. The present study investigated the movement patterns of the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus in the absence of a food cue (experiment 1) and in the presence of a food cue (experiment 2). In experiment 1, we found that the movement of sea cucumbers was close to a linear motion (motion linearity 0.91 ± 0.01). In experiment 2, sea cucumbers most frequently adjusted the movement direction when being exposed to food (84 times/216 min), indicating that sea cucumbers adjusted the direction of movement in the swing state but not the motion state. In experiment 2, we found significantly lower time in the immobility state in the sea cucumbers in the presence of food cues compared to that of those without being exposed to food cues, and the frequency of the motion state in response to food cues was 1.6 times than that of those without food cue. This suggests that food cues cause the change in motion state in sea cucumbers. Swing frequency was 1.7 times higher in sea cucumbers exposed to food cues than that of those not exposed to food cues. Further, sea cucumbers in the presence of food showed significantly better performances in swing angle and swing velocity compared to those not exposed to food cues. This suggests that food cue significantly affects the swing state of sea cucumbers. Notably, the present study described the movement patterns of sea cucumbers when they detected food cues, and other factors (such as the detection of predators) need to be further studied. The present study provides new insights into the regulation of movement direction in eyeless organisms.

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“…We consistently found that interactions seriously hamper the movement of S . intermedius 24 . Thus, it is reasonable to hypothesize that eliminating interactions in multi-layer culture probably further improves important traits of sea urchins.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of eliminating interactions in multi-layer culture on survival, food utilization and growth of small sea urchins Strongylocentrotus intermedius at high temperatures

Chi

Yang

et al. 2021

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Poor growth and disease transmission of small sea urchins Strongylocentrotus intermedius in summer greatly hamper the production efficiency of the longline culture. Reducing the adverse effects of high stocking density while maintaining high biomass is essential to address these problems. Here, we conducted a laboratory experiment to simulate the multi-layer culture for sea urchins at ambient high temperatures (from 22.2 to 24.5 °C) in summer for ~ 7 weeks. Survival, body size, lantern growth, gut weight, food consumption, Aristotle's lantern reflex, 5-hydroxytryptamine concentration, pepsin activity and gut morphology were subsequently evaluated. The present study found that multi-layer culture led to significantly larger body size than those without multi-layer culture (the control group). This was probably because of the greater feeding capacity (indicated by lantern growth and Aristotle's lantern reflex) and food digestion (indicated by morphology and pepsin activity of gut) in the multi-layer cultured sea urchins. These results indicate that multi-layer is an effective approach to improving the growth efficiency of sea urchins at high temperatures. We assessed whether eliminating interaction further improve these commercially important traits of sea urchins in multi-layer culture. This study found that eliminating interactions displayed greater body size and Aristotle's lantern reflex than those not separated in the multi-layer culture. This approach also significantly reduced the morbidity compared with the control group. These novel findings indicate that eliminating interactions in multi-layer culture greatly contributes to the growth and disease prevention of sea urchins at high temperatures. The present study establishes a new technique for the longline culture of sea urchins in summer and provides valuable information into the longline culture management of other commercially important species (e.g. scallops, abalones and oysters).

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Interaction among sea urchins in response to food cues

Cited by 8 publications

References 26 publications

Macroalgae and interspecific alarm cues regulate behavioral interactions between sea urchins and sea cucumbers

Macroalgae and interspecific alarm cues regulate behavioral interactions between sea urchins and sea cucumbers

Swing Regulates Movement Direction in the Sea Cucumber Apostichopus japonicus in the Presence of Food Cue: New Insights into Movement Patterns

Effects of eliminating interactions in multi-layer culture on survival, food utilization and growth of small sea urchins Strongylocentrotus intermedius at high temperatures

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