Polyp expansion of passive suspension feeders: a red coral case study
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Animal Behavior, Ecology, Marine Biology, Zoology
- Keywords
- Octocorals, passive suspension feeders, optimal foraging theory, Corallium rubrum, activity rhythms, trophic ecology, benthic-pelagic coupling
- Copyright
- © 2019 Rossi et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2019. Polyp expansion of passive suspension feeders: a red coral case study. PeerJ Preprints 7:e27490v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27490v1
Abstract
Polyp activity in passive suspension feeders has been linked to several environmental factors such as hydrodynamics, water temperature and food concentration. To better elucidate the driving forces controlling polyp expansion in these organisms and the potential role of particle concentration, the octocoral Corallium rubrum was investigated in accordance with two approaches: 1) High-frequency in-situ observations testing various environmental and biological variables affecting the water column, and 2) Video-recorded flume-controlled laboratory experiments performed under a range of environmental and biological conditions in terms of water temperature, flow speed, chemical signals and zooplankton. In the field, C. rubrum polyp activity correlated positively with particle (seston and zooplankton) concentration, which was related to current speed. This observation was confirmed by the flume video records of the laboratory experiments, which showed differences in polyp activity due to changes in temperature and current speed, but especially in response to nutritional stimuli and the presence of zooplankton. Zooplankton and water movement appeared to be the main factors controlling polyp expansion. These results suggest that the energy budget of passive suspension feeders (and probably the benthic community as a whole) may rely on their ability to maximise prey capture during food pulses. The latter, which may be described as discontinuous organic matter (dead or alive) input, may be the key to a better understanding of benthic-pelagic coupling processes and trophic impacts on animal forests composed of sessile suspension feeders.
Author Comment
This is a submission to PeerJ for review.
Supplemental Information
Periodograms from three different colonies
Periodograms from three different colonies. Example of three periodograms from three different colonies (peaks represent polyp expansion), showing endogenous rhythms at 18°C and still-water conditions. On the left the recorded normalised activities (i.e. the number of pixels divided by the maximum polyp expansion for that experiment); on the right the Lomb periodogram with frequencies on the X axis and number of occurrences on the Y axis. Figures close to the peaks indicate the periods. The 3 dashed lines represent the significativity of the peaks, 0.1, 0.01 and 0.001, the smallest value corresponding to the highest significativity.
Figure 2 SEM: Records of individual polyp activity. (
Figure 2 SEM: Records of individual polyp activity. (A) The area below the peaks for a given experiment. (B) The derivative of this curve with absolute values (increase or decrease in polyp expansion). These records usually show a steeper descent after opening.
Corallium rubrum polyp activity at 18°C and 3 cm s-1 current speed
Corallium rubrum polyp activity at 18°C and 3 cm s-1 current speed.
Raw Data Corallium rubrum
Data of the 1) field observations (seston and zooplankton) and 2) experiment variables (temperature, currents & chemical signals)