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Competitive interactions between corals and Trididemnum solidum on Mexican Caribbean reefs

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Abstract

The ascidian Trididemnum solidum competes for space on Caribbean reefs and is capable of overgrowing live scleractinian corals. From 2006 to 2009, we monitored over 30,000 coral colonies and quantified competitive interactions with this ascidian at four reef sites along the Mexican Caribbean. The total number of competitive interactions increased in time, but the mean percentage of coral colonies involved in interactions remained lower than 1% in all reefs. Bottom cover by T. solidum was also low (mean < 0.5%) in all reef sites in all sampling years. We conclude that during the temporal scope of our study, the overall potential effect of T. solidum on the dynamics of Mexican Caribbean coral populations was minimal.

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Acknowledgments

We thank M.A. Maldonado, L. Vázquez-Vera, and J. Andras for assistance in the field. This manuscript was greatly improved by comments from P. Blanchon. This work was supported by the Coral Disease Working Group of the Global Environment Facility Coral Targeted Research program and by the Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, UNAM.

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Author notes

  1. D. M. Baker

    Present address: Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC, 20015, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unidad Académica Puerto Morelos. Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ap. Postal 1152, 77500, Cancún, QR, Mexico

    R. E. Rodríguez-Martínez, A. G. Jordán-Garza & E. Jordán-Dahlgren

  2. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    D. M. Baker

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  1. R. E. Rodríguez-Martínez
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  2. A. G. Jordán-Garza
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  3. D. M. Baker
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  4. E. Jordán-Dahlgren
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to R. E. Rodríguez-Martínez.

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Communicated by Biology Editor Dr. Mark Vermeij

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Rodríguez-Martínez, R.E., Jordán-Garza, A.G., Baker, D.M. et al. Competitive interactions between corals and Trididemnum solidum on Mexican Caribbean reefs. Coral Reefs 31, 571–577 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-011-0871-y

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