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Coral Reef Communities

Coral Reef Communities. Patrick Smith, Michelle Franklin, Max Woerfel , Nick Patricca. Introduction. Coral Reefs are one of the most productive places on the Earth Only cover .1% of the world but support a quarter of all marine species Made up of calcium carbonate structures Highly diverse

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Coral Reef Communities

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  1. Coral Reef Communities Patrick Smith, Michelle Franklin, Max Woerfel, Nick Patricca

  2. Introduction • Coral Reefs are one of the most productive places on the Earth • Only cover .1% of the world but support a quarter of all marine species • Made up of calcium carbonate structures • Highly diverse • Enhances resistance to environmental perturbations

  3. Introduction • Coral reefs are sustained by the complex relationships between the species living there • Many symbiotic relationships • Mutualisms are especially important • Corals themselves get up to 90% of their nutrients from symbiotic relationships

  4. Introduction • There are three types of mutualisms • Trophic – mutualism comes in the form of resources • Dispersive – one partner gets resources and the other gets a service • Defensive – mutualism comes in the form of services

  5. Relationships in the Reef

  6. Relationships • The coral reef ecosystem is a unique place for these to occur due to the high level of biodiversity • Remarkable for the many mutualisms which occur in the community • Hermatypic corals and zooxanthellae • Cleaner fish and their clients • Clown anemonefish and sea anemones • Parrotfish and Rabbitfish

  7. Hermatypic Corals and Zooxanthellae • Hermatypic Corals • Make up the reef • Secrete hard calcium exoskeleton • Zooxanthellae • Algae capable of photosynthesis

  8. Hermatypic Corals and Zooxanthellae • Hermatypic Corals provide defense and shelter for zooxanthellae • In return, zooxanthellae use photosynthesis to create their own nutrition

  9. Cleaner Fish and Clients

  10. Cleaner Fish and Clients • Cleaner fish • Typically smaller fish • Most common is the Bluestreak Wrasse • Clients • Larger fish • Larger aquatic animals • Turtles • Rays • Sharks

  11. Cleaner Fish and Clients • The cleaner fish nibble harmful parasites off of their clients • Client fish are unable to do this themselves • The cleaner fish receives a cheap and quick meal of the parasites • This mutualism often develops into long term relationships where a client will visit a “cleaning station” repeatedly

  12. Cleaner Fish and Clients • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOa8y95khK8 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOC2Qc2Qedw

  13. Cleaner Fish and Clients • Research shows this mutualism is critical to the survival of reef communities and their biodiversity • The bluestreak wrasse was eliminated from small reefs near Lizard Island, and kept away for 8.5 years • Caused a 37% decrease in fish abundance, 23% decrease in biodiversity, and a decrease in size of fish

  14. Clown Anemonefish and Sea Anemones

  15. Clown Anemonefish and Sea Anemones • Sea Anemones provide the clownfish with shelter • When young, clownfish go through a process called “anemone rubbing” • Clownfish provide the sea anemones with nutrients • Drag food back to the anemone • Consume zooplankton and excrete ammonia in the anemone

  16. Parrotfish and Rabbitfish

  17. Parrotfish and Rabbitfish • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T-gnZevlaY

  18. Parrotfish and Rabbitfish • Parrotfish • Herbivorous fish that use their specialized fused teeth to scrape algae and invertebrates from hard coral and rocks • Relatively defenseless against predators • Rabbitfish • Travel in schools • Have defense mechanisms of venomous spines and color-changing for camouflage against predators

  19. Parrotfish and Rabbitfish • The Parrotfish’s grazing on algae is essential to coral reef stability because it keeps algae from overtaking the reef and eliminating areas that fish can colonize and live in. • The Rabbitfish allows the Parrotfish to graze with its school. By doing so the Parrotfish is able to keep algae growth in check while being protected by the Rabbitfish school and their defense mechanisms.

  20. Conservation • Invasive species, eutrophication, sedimentation, overfishing, coral bleaching, etc. • Role of anthropogenic causes • Reef damage is causing a shift from specialists to generalists • Due to destruction of small niches • This shift can cause huge drops in species richness

  21. Future Research • Currently there is much debate about how big of an effect anthropogenic stressors are impacting the degradation of coral reefs • Some scientists believe most is natural disturbances • Others believe it is anthropogenic • Important research could be determining how much humans are effecting the degradation

  22. Future Research • The resilience of coral reefs is important due to the current rate of degradation • Future research should concentrate on if and how coral reefs can recover

  23. Future Research • It would be extremely helpful to further look into the mutualistic relationships that occur in coral reefs • Removal studies like the one done on the bluestreak wrasse would give insight to the importance of the mutualisms

  24. Summary • The health of the reef depends on the complex relationships occurring in the ecosystem. • High diversity, which can be seen by the amount of mutualistic relationships, can indicate the wellbeing of the reef. • Once diversity is lost it can not be recovered

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