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Hydrolithon spp. (Rhodophyta, Corallinales) overgrow live corals (Cnidaria, Scleractinia) in Yemen

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Abstract

In Yemen, off the northwestern coast in the Gulf of Aden, the coralline algae Hydrolithon rupestre (Foslie) Penrose 1996 and H. murakoshii Iryu and Matsuda 1996 have been observed to overgrow and kill living Porites lutea Milne-Edwards and Haime, 1860. Similarly, Hydrolithon onkodes (Heydrich) Penrose and Woelkerling 1992 and H. rupestre were observed overgrowing Stylophora pistillata (Esper, 1797). Competitive interactions between P. lutea and H. murakoshii were monitored from 2006 to 2009 at two sites and showed an average linear growth of 8.3 (±1.9 SD) mm year−1 over the coral. The small polyps of S. pistillata and P. lutea combined with putative chemical compounds produced by Hydrolithon spp. are likely to allow the coralline overgrowth. Although corallines can locally kill coral tissues, the CCA/coral interactions do not seem to affect the overall live coral cover at the study sites.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Robert Hirst and Yemen LNG, Claude Chaineu and Total E&P, for allowing fieldwork and sampling, and to Eric Dutrieux and Creocean for logistic and organization support. We thank S. Basheen (Professional Divers Yemen) help in different parts of the field work. We are very grateful to the Editor and to three anonymous reviewers for their constructive criticism and their help to improve the manuscript and to Jane Hayward Cantarelli for English editing. We wish to thank M. Pichon for fruitful discussion and Paolo Gentile for his help with specimen preparation and SEM imaging.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Biotecnologie e Bioscienze, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza, 3, 20126, Milan, Italy

    Francesca Benzoni

  2. Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UMR227 Coreus2, 101 Promenade Roger Laroque, BP A5, 98848, Nouméa Cedex, New Caledonia, France

    Francesca Benzoni

  3. Dipartimento di Scienze Geologiche e Geotecnologie, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza, 4, 20126, Milan, Italy

    Daniela Basso & Annalisa Caragnano

  4. Dipartimento di Biologia, Sezione di Botanica Sistematica, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria, 26, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Graziella Rodondi

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  1. Francesca Benzoni
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  2. Daniela Basso
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  4. Graziella Rodondi
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Correspondence to Daniela Basso.

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Communicated by J. P. Grassle.

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Benzoni, F., Basso, D., Caragnano, A. et al. Hydrolithon spp. (Rhodophyta, Corallinales) overgrow live corals (Cnidaria, Scleractinia) in Yemen. Mar Biol 158, 2419–2428 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-011-1743-2

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