Alleopathy and spatial competition among coral reef invertebrates
AUTOR(ES)
Jackson, J. B. C.
RESUMO
Species of ectoprocts and solitary encrusting animals were subjected in aquaria to homogenates of 11 sympatric species of sponges and colonial ascidians. Five of the nine sponge species and one of the two ascidian species exhibited species-specific allelochemical effects. Evidence suggests that alleochemical provide a wide-spread, specific, and complex mechanism for interference competition for space among natural populations of coral reef organisms. The existence of such species-specific mechanisms may provide a basis for maintenance of diversity in space-limited systems in the absence of high levels of predation and physical disturbance.
ACESSO AO ARTIGO
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=388896Documentos Relacionados
- Bungalow hospital and coral reef
- Perturbation and change in coral reef communities
- Biodiversity, population regulation, and the stability of coral-reef fish communities
- Persistence and coexistence of a nonsymbiotic coral in open reef environments
- Anomalies in coral reef community metabolism and their potential importance in the reef CO2 source-sink debate