Author:
Baird Andrew H.,Pratchett Morgan S.,Gibson Deborah J.,Koziumi Noriko,Marquis Christopher P.
Abstract
Predation by fish is generally assumed to be an important source of mortality
of coral propagules. Field observations have confirmed that fish feed within
the slicks of gametes that form following the annual mass spawning of corals
on the Great Barrier Reef. However, these studies cannot determine which
species are being consumed. To test whether the eggs of coral species were
equally palatable, the eggs of eight common broadcast spawning scleractinian
corals were fed to a planktivorous fish.
Pomacentrus moluccensis readily consumed the eggs of
five acroporid species and two faviid species, but often rejected the eggs of
the agariciid Pachyseris speciosa; only 60% of
the P. speciosa eggs were ingested compared with
90% of eggs of the other species. Assay testing for chemical defence
showed that P. speciosa eggs were chemically distasteful
to P. moluccensis.
Subject
Ecology,Aquatic Science,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics,Oceanography
Cited by
16 articles.
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