Removal of corallivorous snails as a proactive conservation tool
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Conservation Biology, Ecology, Ecosystem Science, Marine Biology
- Keywords
- Coralliophila abbreviata, Florida, Elkhorn, predator, Acropora palmata
- Copyright
- © 2014 Williams 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
- 2014. Removal of corallivorous snails as a proactive conservation tool. PeerJ PrePrints 2:e478v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.478v1
Abstract
Corallivorous snail feeding is a common source of tissue loss for the threatened coral Acropora palmata, accounting for roughly one-quarter of tissue loss in monitored study plots over seven years. However, corallivory by Coralliophila abbreviata is one of the few major sources of partial mortality (contrasting with threats such as bleaching, disease, or storm disturbances) that may be locally managed. We conducted a field experiment to explore the effectiveness and feasibility of snail removal. Long-term monitoring plots on six reefs in the upper Florida Keys were assigned to one of three removal treatments: 1) removal from A. palmata only, 2) removal from all host coral species, or 3) no-removal controls. During the initial removal in June 2011, 639 snails were removed from twelve 150 m2 plots. Snails were removed two additional times during a seven month “removal phase”, then counted at five surveys over the next 19 months to track recolonization. At the conclusion, snails were collected, measured, and sexed. Before-After-Control-Impact analysis revealed that both snail abundance and feeding scar prevalence were reduced in removal treatments compared to the control, but there was no difference between removal treatments. Recolonization by snails to baseline abundance is estimated to be 4.3 years and did not differ between removal treatments. Recolonization rate was significantly correlated with baseline snail abundance. Maximum snail size decreased from 47.0 mm to 34.6 mm in the removal treatments. The effort required to remove snails from A. palmata was 30 diver minutes per 150 m2 plot, compared with 51 minutes to remove snails from all host corals. Since there was no additional benefit observed with removing snails from all host species, removals can be more efficiently focused on only A. palmata colonies, and in areas where C. abbreviata abundance is high, to effectively conserve A. palmata in targeted areas.
Author Comment
This is a submission to PeerJ for review.
Supplemental Information
Dataset
Excel file including the variables analyzed and presented in this manuscript.