Helioseris Cucullata As a Host Coral at St. Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean
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University of Groningen Helioseris cucullata as a host coral at St. Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean Hoeksema, Bert W.; van Beusekom, Mick; ten Hove, Harry A.; Ivanenko, Viatcheslav N.; van der Meij, Sancia E. T.; van Moorsel, Godfried W. N. M. Published in: Marine Biodiversity DOI: 10.1007/s12526-016-0599-6 IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2017 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Hoeksema, B. W., van Beusekom, M., ten Hove, H. A., Ivanenko, V. N., van der Meij, S. E. T., & van Moorsel, G. W. N. M. (2017). Helioseris cucullata as a host coral at St. Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean. Marine Biodiversity, 47(1), 71-78. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-016-0599-6 Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 24-09-2021 Mar Biodiv (2017) 47:71–78 DOI 10.1007/s12526-016-0599-6 CARIBBEAN CORAL REEFS Helioseris cucullata as a host coral at St. Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean Bert W. Hoeksema1,2 & Mick van Beusekom1,3 & Harry A. ten Hove1 & Viatcheslav N. Ivanenko1,4 & Sancia E.T. van der Meij1,5 & Godfried W.N.M. van Moorsel6 Received: 31 August 2016 /Revised: 26 October 2016 /Accepted: 27 October 2016 /Published online: 22 November 2016 # The Author(s) 2016. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract In order to demonstrate how scleractinian corals fauna. The present findings indicate that new discoveries contribute to marine biodiversity by their host function, infor- concerning Caribbean coral reef biodiversity can still be made mation on associated fauna was gathered during a biological during field expeditions by targeting the assemblages of asso- survey at St. Eustatius, eastern Caribbean. This knowledge is ciated fauna of specific benthic host species. especially urgent for a host coral such as Helioseris cucullata (Agariciidae), which has undergone strong declines in abun- Keywords Associated fauna . Copepod . Coral barnacle . dance at various Caribbean localities and has a poor record of Coral reefs . EDGE species . Gall crab . Serpulid associated fauna. New records of H. cucullata as host are presented for the coral gall crab Opecarcinus hypostegus (Cryptochiridae), the Christmas tree worm Spirobranchus Introduction giganteus (Serpulidae) and an unidentified serpulid tube worm of the genus Vermiliopsis. A second association record Helioseris cucullata (Ellis and Solander, 1786) (Scleractinia: is reported for the coral barnacle Megatrema madreporarum Agariicidae) is a foliaceous reef coral with a Caribbean distri- (Pyrgomatidae). Coral-associated copepods were not found bution. It represents a monospecific clade that is separate from on H. cucullata despite a search for these animals. The new the predominantly Indo-Pacific genus Leptoseris, with which records were compared with previous records of other host it was previously classified (Kitahara et al. 2012). Its calices coral species that showed elements of the same associated are arranged in between concentric, discontinuous, lopsided ridges, giving its upper surface a wave-like appearance, for which it has been nicknamed Sunray lettuce coral (Humann Communicated by J. Davis Reimer and DeLoach 2013). Live specimens have been recorded from lower reef slopes, * Bert W. Hoeksema including the mesophotic down to 99 m depth (Bak 1975; [email protected] Kahng et al. 2010; Bongaerts et al. 2013;Jaap2015; Hoeksema and Van Moorsel 2016). Dead fragments of recent- 1 Naturalis Biodiversity Center, P.O. Box 9517, 2300 ly deceased colonies have been dredged from > 150 m depth RA Leiden, The Netherlands (Santodomingo et al. 2007). At some localities, declines in its 2 Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9505, 2300 abundance have been recorded, especially reduced densities RA Leiden, The Netherlands of its recruits over time, which eventually affect whole popu- 3 Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of lations (Hughes and Tanner 2000; Vermeij et al. 2011;Miller Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94240, 1090 GE Amsterdam, The Netherlands et al. 2016). This is consistent with provenance data available 4 Department of Invertebrate Zoology Biological Faculty, Lomonosov from H. cucullata specimens in the coral collection of Moscow State University, Moscow 119992, Russia Naturalis Biodiversity Center (Leiden, The Netherlands). 5 Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, Seven H. cucullata corals in this collection were sampled in Oxford OX1 3PW, UK the 1970s from lower reef slopes (12–30 m depth) at three 6 Ecosub, P.O. Box 126, 3940 AC Doorn, The Netherlands localities in Curaçao, where the species has become rare or 72 Mar Biodiv (2017) 47:71–78 absent since then (Hoeksema pers. observ.). These findings present study it was hypothesized that field surveys targeting are corroborated by observations at other localities on the coral species with a poor reputation as host coral, such as in same island by Vermeij et al. (2011), who linked a drastic this case H. cucullata (Scott 1987), would result in new dis- decrease in the density of juvenile H. cucullata to a decline coveries of associations. During a recent marine biodiversity in reef health. Earlier assessments by Aronson et al. (2008), survey at St. Eustatius (eastern Caribbean; Hoeksema 2016), who stated that no large declines have been observed and that H. cucullata appeared to be relatively common (García- the conservation status of H. cucullata in the IUCN Red List Hernández et al. 2016; Hoeksema and Van Moorsel 2016). of Threatened Species should be considered of Bleast This offered an opportunity to study its associated fauna, the concern^, are therefore in need of a reevaluation. In view of topic of the present report. the recently recognized phylogenetic position of H. cucullata (Huang 2012; Kitahara et al. 2012, 2016), such a reconsider- ation may also result in a higher conservation priority based Material and methods on its EDGE score (Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered; see Curnick et al. 2015). During the marine biodiversity survey of St. Eustatius, in Corals not only contribute to reef biodiversity by them- June 2015, stony corals were inspected for the presence of selves, but also serve as host for assemblages of associated associated fauna by use of the roving diver technique fauna (Scott 1987;Stellaetal.2011) that could contain host- (Hoeksema and Van Moorsel 2016). St. Eustatius is locat- specific species (Hoeksema et al. 2012). Hence, the protection ed in the eastern Caribbean, where it has a wave-exposed of particular corals is also important for the conservation of coastline at its eastward Atlantic side and a sheltered coast entire reef faunal assemblages (Huang et al. 2016). at the western, Caribbean shoreline (Hoeksema 2016). Knowledge of coral associates is also relevant, since most of The maximum depth for the observations was 30 m due them are filter-feeding heterotrophs. Consequently, their abun- to SCUBA safety regulations. Among a total of 39 dives dance on reefs may also be indicative of environmental stress of approximately 60 min, 36 dives exceeded 12 m, cov- caused by eutrophication and sedimentation (Risk et al. 2001; ering the preferred depth range of H. cucullata. Clearly Scaps and Denis 2008; Samimi Namin et al. 2010). visible associated macrofauna was photographed, sam- Recent studies in the Indo-Pacific targeting scleractinian pled, and stored in 96 % ethanol for further examination. species for associated fauna have resulted in new host records In a survey of coral-associated copepods, in as many coral for small or hidden species of, for example, parasitic snails species as possible, four Helioseris colonies were exam- (Gittenberger and Gittenberger 2011; Gittenberger and ined for the presence of associated copepods (Ivanenko Hoeksema 2013), benthic ctenophores (Hoeksema et al. 2016). The corals were collected and isolated in plastic 2013;Alamaruetal.2016), copepods (Ivanenko et al. bags underwater; in the laboratory, ethanol was added to 2014), hydroids (Montano et al. 2014, 2015a, b), crypto- the bags (adjusting solution 10%), and the hosts were kept benthic fish (Bos 2012; Bos and Hoeksema 2015), and com- in the solution for 20–30 min; then the symbionts were mensal shrimps (Fransen and Rauch 2013; Ďuriš and Lin shaken and the residue with anaesthetized copepods was 2016). New host records were also obtained during recent passed through a fine sieve (mesh size 60 μm). The corals studies of Scleractinia-associated fauna in the Caribbean. were also examined for presence of copepods living in They concern, for instance, gall crabs (Van der Meij 2014), galls or polyps. The dry coral collection of Naturalis serpulids (Hoeksema and Ten Hove 2016), commensal Biodiversity Center was inspected for additional associa- shrimps (Brinkmann and Fransen 2016), hydroids (Montano tions involving H. cucullata. Collection numbers are cod- et al. 2016), and corallivorous snails (Potkamp 2016). ed BRMNH Coel.^ for specimens in the collection of the Probably due to its relatively deep distribution range com- former Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie and BZMA pared to many other reef corals (>12 m depth) and its rarity, Coel.^ for the former Zoological Museum, University of only two cases appear to be available concerning H.