Agonistic behavior of the strawberry anemone Actinia fragacea Tugwell, 1856: a tale on space competition and genetic identity in Cnidaria.

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Agonistic behavior of the strawberry anemone Actinia fragacea Tugwell, 1856: a tale on space competition and genetic identity in Cnidaria. Emília Cadeireiro1, Ana M. Pereira1, 2 and Joana I. Robalo1, 2* 1 ISPA- Instituto Universitário das Ciências Psicológicas, Sociais e da Vida, Portugal 2 MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Portugal The occurrence of agonistic behavior in sea anemones is a relatively common phenomenon and it has been widely documented for several species, most frequently related to defense and space competition contexts. Agonistic encounters may include behaviours like "moving away", "expansion and deflection of the column" (of one individual over the other) and/or "acrorhagial stinging". It has been speculated that aggression could be reduced or even inexistent amongst clonal individuals, which are frequent in some species of anemones. This study aims to assess the frequency of agonistic behavior in artificially induced clones and different individuals of the strawberry anemone, a species presenting mainly sexual reproduction. Our results show that, concerning agonistic behaviour, individuals of A. fragacea do not seem to differentiate clones of themselves from different individuals. These results contrast with the ones previously found for the sympatric beadlet anemone, Actinia equina. We hypothesize that, in this species, agonistic behavior occurs mainly in space competition contexts between individuals, regardless of its genetic relationship. Keywords: Invertebrate behaviour, territorial aggression, genetic identity and agonistic behaviour, Cnidarian behaviour, space competition in cnidarians Conference: IMMR | International Meeting on Marine Research 2016, Peniche, Portugal, 14 Jul - 15 Jul, 2016. Presentation Type: Poster presentation Topic: Biodiversity, Conservation and Coastal Management Citation: Cadeireiro E, Pereira AM and Robalo JI (2016). Agonistic behavior of the strawberry anemone Actinia fragacea Tugwell, 1856: a tale on space competition and genetic identity in Cnidaria.. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: IMMR | International Meeting on Marine Research 2016. doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2016.04.00093 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 26 Apr 2016; Published Online: 13 Jul 2016. * Correspondence: Prof. Joana I Robalo, ISPA- Instituto Universitário das Ciências Psicológicas, Sociais e da Vida, Lisbon, 1149-041, Portugal, jrobalo@ispa.pt Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Emília Cadeireiro Ana M Pereira Joana I Robalo Google Emília Cadeireiro Ana M Pereira Joana I Robalo Google Scholar Emília Cadeireiro Ana M Pereira Joana I Robalo PubMed Emília Cadeireiro Ana M Pereira Joana I Robalo Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.