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Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Community assessment of crustose calcifying red algae as coral recruitment substrates
PLoS One, Vol.17(7), pp.1-20
2022
PMCID: PMC9307205
PMID: 35867665
Abstract
Successful recruitment of invertebrate larvae to reef substrates is essential to the health of tropical coral reef ecosystems and to their capacity to recover from disturbances. Crustose calcifying red algae (CCRA) are a species rich group of seaweeds that have been identified as important recruitment substrates for scleractinian corals. Most studies on the settlement preference of coral larvae on CCRA use morphological species identifications that can lead to unreliable species identification and do not allow for examining species-specific interactions between coral larvae and CCRA. Accurate identifications of CCRA species is important for coral reef restoration and management to assess CCRA community composition and to detect CCRA species that are favored as coral recruitment substrates. In this study, DNA sequence analysis, was used to identify CCRA species to (1) investigate the species richness and community composition of CCRA on experimental coral recruitment tiles and (2) assess if the coral Acropora surculosa preferred any of these CCRA species as recruitment substrates. The CCRA community assemblages on the coral recruitment tiles was species-rich, comprising 27 distinct CCRA species of the orders Corallinales and Peyssonneliales which constitute new species records for Guam. Lithophylloideae sp. 1 (Corallinales) was the CCRA species that was significantly favored by coral larvae as a recruitment substrate. Lithophylloideae sp. 1 showed to hold a valuable ecological role for coral larval recruitment preference. Lithophylloideae sp. 1 had the highest benthic cover on the recruitment tiles and contained most A. surculosa recruits. DNA barcoding revealed a high taxonomic diversity of CCRA species on a microhabitat scale and provided detailed insight into the species-specific ecological interactions between CCRA and corals. With a steady decline in coral cover, detailed information on species interactions that drive reef recovery is valuable for the planning of marine management actions and restoration efforts.
Details
- Title
- Community assessment of crustose calcifying red algae as coral recruitment substrates
- Authors
- Mari Deinhart (Author) - University of GuamMatthew S Mills (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringTom Schils (Author) - University of Guam
- Publication details
- PLoS One, Vol.17(7), pp.1-20
- Audience
- Academic
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science
- Date published
- 2022
- DOI
- 10.1371/journal.pone.0271438
- ISSN
- 1932-6203
- PMID
- 35867665; PMC9307205
- Copyright note
- © 2022 Deinhart et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
- Organisation Unit
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99659497802621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web Of Science research areas
- Marine & Freshwater Biology
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