Over het archief
Het OWA, het open archief van het Waterbouwkundig Laboratorium heeft tot doel alle vrij toegankelijke onderzoeksresultaten van dit instituut in digitale vorm aan te bieden. Op die manier wil het de zichtbaarheid, verspreiding en gebruik van deze onderzoeksresultaten, alsook de wetenschappelijke communicatie maximaal bevorderen.
Dit archief wordt uitgebouwd en beheerd volgens de principes van de Open Access Movement, en het daaruit ontstane Open Archives Initiative.
Basisinformatie over ‘Open Access to scholarly information'.
First experimental evidence of corals feeding on seagrass matter
Lai, S.; Gillis, L.G.; Mueller, C.; Bouma, T.J.; Guest, J.R.; Last, K.S.; Ziegler, A.D.; Todd, P.A. (2013). First experimental evidence of corals feeding on seagrass matter. Coral Reefs 32(4): 1061-1064. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00338-013-1062-9
In: Coral Reefs. Springer: Berlin; Heidelberg; New York. ISSN 0722-4028; e-ISSN 1432-0975, meer
|  |
| Author keywords |
Seagrass; Coral heterotrophy; Habitat connectivity; Nutrient transfer |
| Auteurs | | Top |
- Lai, S.
- Gillis, L.G., meer
- Mueller, C., meer
- Bouma, T.J., meer
|
- Guest, J.R.
- Last, K.S.
- Ziegler, A.D.
- Todd, P.A.
|
|
| Abstract |
We present the first experimental evidence of a coral (Oulastrea crispata) ingesting and assimilating seagrass material. Tropical seagrass meadows export a substantial portion of their productivity and can provide an important source of nutrients to neighbouring systems such as coral reefs; however, little is known about the mechanisms of this link. To investigate whether seagrass nutrient uptake via coral heterotrophy is possible, we conducted a feeding experiment with seagrass particulate and dissolved organic matter. Using gut extractions and stable isotope analyses, we determined that O. crispata ingested 15N-enriched seagrass particles and assimilated the nitrogen into its tissue at a rate of 0.75 µg N cm-2 h-1. Corals took up nitrogen from dissolved matter at a comparable rate of 0.98 µg N cm-2 h-1. While other ecological connections between seagrass meadows and reef ecosystems are well known, our results suggest a previously unstudied direct nutritional link between seagrasses and corals. |
IMIS is ontwikkeld en wordt gehost door het VLIZ.
