Abstract
In Brazilian reefs, zoanthids, especially Palythoa caribaeorum are fundamental for structuring the local benthic community. The objective of this study was to determine the growth rate of P. caribaeorum, and to assess the influence of the site (different beaches), season (dry and wet), location (intertidal or infralittoral zones), and human pressure associated with tourism. For one year we monitored the cover of P. caribaeorum in transects and focused on 20 colonies. We cut off a square (100 cm2) from the central part of the colony and monitored the bare area for four months in each season. The average growth rates varied from 0.015 and 0.021 cm.day(-1). The rate was homogeneous in all localities, and there was no influence from colony site, location, or touristic visitation, showing that the growth velocity may be an intrinsic characteristic of the species, with a strong genetic component. The growth rate of P. caribaeorum differed among months, and peaked in the first month after injury. The average cover varied from 6.2 to 22.9% and was lower on the reef visited by tourists. The present study corroborates the hypothesis that P. caribaeorum is important for coastal reef dynamics due to its fast and continuous growth.
Highlights
Coral reefs are very important due to the several ecosystem services they provide (Dight and Scherl 1997, Moberg and Folke 1999), their high productivity (Connell 1978, Birkeland 1997), their biodiversity (Moberg and Folke 1999), and their dynamism (Osborne 2000)
Palythoa caribaeorum has been pointed out as the cnidarian with the highest growth rate (MendonçaNeto and Gama 2009, Costa et al 2011), in particular considering the study by Suchanek and Green (1981)
The authors calculated as 0.12 cm2. cm of edge-1.month-1 the growth rate of P. caribaeorum in areas without the presence of a competitor (100% of P. caribaeorum cover; competitors removed)
Summary
Coral reefs are very important due to the several ecosystem services they provide (Dight and Scherl 1997, Moberg and Folke 1999), their high productivity (Connell 1978, Birkeland 1997), their biodiversity (Moberg and Folke 1999), and their dynamism (Osborne 2000). The species composition of this group varies geographically, but dominant species play similar ecological roles in different reefs. This is the case of scleractinian corals and zoanthid (Fautin 1988). Brazilian coastal reefs are covered mainly by zoanthids (Oigman-Pszczol et al 2004, Floeter et al 2007, Francini-Filho et al 2013) and the dominant species is P. caribaeorum, which is common in the western Atlantic (Acosta et al 2005, Francini-Filho et al 2013)
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