Variation in life-history traits of the corallivorous gastropod Coralliophila abbreviata on three coral hosts
"Coralliophila abbreviata (Lamarck) is a corallivorous gastropod that lives and feeds on several species of scleractinian coral in the Western Atlantic and Caribbean. Previous studies of C. abbreviata have revealed that snails on branching acroporid coral...
Elkhorn coral and white pox: An answer and more questions
A common bacterium, Serratia marcescens, has been identified as causing 'white pox' disease of elkhorn coral. Even though humans carry this bacterium, it is also found from non-human sources.
Morphology offers no clues to asexual vs. sexual origin of small Acropora cervicornis (Scleractinia: Acroporidae) colonies
"Sexual recruitment of the staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis, is accepted to be very rare. Instead, these branching corals proliferate through fragmentation leading to dense mono-specific and possibly monoclonal stands. For acroporid corals, which have...
Ecology of a corallivorous gastropod, Coralliophila abbreviata, on two scleractinian hosts. I: Population structure of snails and corals
"Despite their potential importance in structuring reef communities, invertebrate corallivores and their population structures are poorly understood. We found distinct differences in the population structures (length-frequency distribution and sex ratio) ...
Ecology of a corallivorous gastropod, Coralliophila abbreviata, on two scleractinian hosts. II: Feeding, respiration, and growth
"Coralliophila abbreviata is a corallivorous gastropod that has been observed to cause large feeding scars on reef-building corals on Floridian and Caribbean reefs. We detected differences in the population structure (length-frequency distribution and sex...
Mendelian microsatellite loci for the Caribbean coral Acropora palmata
The genus Acropora constitutes the most species-rich clade of hermatypic corals, and its members are important reef builders throughout their broad tropical range. In the Caribbean, acroporid populations have declined over the last 2 decades due to diseas...
Regionally isolated populations of an imperiled Caribbean coral, Acropora palmata
"The movements of larvae between marine populations are difficult to follow directly and have been the subject of much controversy, especially in the Caribbean. The debate centres on the degree to which populations are demographically open, such that depl...
Geographic variation in clonal structure in a reef building Caribbean coral, Acropora palmata
"Species that build the physical structure of ecosystems often reproduce clonally, both in terrestrial (e.g., grasses, trees) and marine (e.g., corals, seagrasses) environments. The degree of clonality may vary over a species' range in accordance with the...
Corallivorous snails as coral disease vectors in Caribbean acroporids