Larval release and rapid settlement of the coral-killing sponge, Terpios hoshinota , at Green Island, Taiwan
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Larval release and rapid settlement of the coral-killing sponge, Terpios hoshinota , at Green Island, Taiwan Chia-Min Hsu & Jih-Terng Wang & Chaolun Allen Chen
Received: 11 June 2013 / Revised: 21 July 2013 / Accepted: 13 August 2013 / Published online: 18 September 2013 # Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
Since the description of Terpios hoshinota from Guam (Rützler and Muzik 1993), there have been recent reports of increased incidences of invasion by this coralkilling cyanobacteriosponge on Indo-Pacific coral reefs (Fujii et al. 2011; de Voogd et al. 2013). However, the life-history strategy behind its invasive capacity remains unknown. In November 2010, at full moon, Acropora sp. branches overgrown by T. hoshinota were collected from Daibaisha reef (22°38′20.05″N, 121°29′31.05″E), at Green Island, Taiwan. Six hours after collection, parenchymella larvae were observed crawling out from the oscula and remaining on the surface of mother sponges (Fig. 1a, b). A high density of cyanobacteria (∼10−5/cm2) was found in the parenchymella covered with cilia (Wang et al. 2012; Fig. 1c). The larvae rapidly settled and started metamorphosis on substrates consisting of dead coral skeleton and a glass petri dish
(Fig. 1d), but not on the surface of live corals (Fig. 1e). These settlement preferences imply that T. hoshinota might not be able to directly attack healthy and live corals, but instead settles on other hard substrates close
C.
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