Crab behavior suggestive of wound-tending may improve coral tolerance to heat waves.
Crab behavior suggestive of wound-tending may improve coral tolerance to heat waves.
For certain vulnerable corals, help is in the claws of a crab. Reporting in Proceedings Biological Sciences, researchers found that a species of branching coral benefitted from a reef-dwelling crab, especially when the coral was heat-stressed and wounded. The findings support the idea that positive species interactions can buffer coral reefs from multiple environmental threats.
Corals are what ecologists call “foundation species,” meaning that they’re integral to habitats and food webs. Understanding ecological factors that shield coral reefs from harm could inform conservation and restoration efforts.
“Foundation species like corals create the base of an ecosystem: They form structures that other species use for shelter, they modify the local environment, and they provide food for other organisms. Learning how these species respond to stress can help us design better strategies to conserve them — and, in turn, other species that rely on them — in an era of global change,” said first author Julianna Renzi, who conducted the research as a graduate student at the Duke University Marine Laboratory, part of the Nicholas School of the Environment.
Read more at Duke University
Image: The team documented the extent of tissue loss in coral samples exposed to different treatments. (Photo by Julianna Renzi)
