. The Biological bulletin. Biology; Zoology; Biology; Marine Biology. 232 K. L. VAN ALSTYNE ET AL. ites of the Caribbean gorgonian Gorgonia ventalina deter feeding by natural assemblages of fishes in the field and by the gorgonian specialist Cyphoma gibbosum (Van Al- styne and Paul, in press). Toxicity of soft corals to the mosquito fish Gambmia affinis was negatively correlated with the degree of armament of the polyps in the Neph- thedidae and negatively correlated with the degree of mineralization of the coenenchyme in 14 species of Sin- itlaria (Sammarco et a!., 1987). Alcyonarian sclerite
. The Biological bulletin. Biology; Zoology; Biology; Marine Biology. 232 K. L. VAN ALSTYNE ET AL. ites of the Caribbean gorgonian Gorgonia ventalina deter feeding by natural assemblages of fishes in the field and by the gorgonian specialist Cyphoma gibbosum (Van Al- styne and Paul, in press). Toxicity of soft corals to the mosquito fish Gambmia affinis was negatively correlated with the degree of armament of the polyps in the Neph- thedidae and negatively correlated with the degree of mineralization of the coenenchyme in 14 species of Sin- itlaria (Sammarco et a!., 1987). Alcyonarian sclerites are extremely variable in size and morphology and are fre- quently used as taxonomic characters (, Bayer, 1956, 1961; Bayer el ai. 1983). Seasonal fluctuations in collagen levels in the organic matrix of sclerites indicate that these structures are dynamic and may undergo seasonal cycles of demineralization and remineralization (Kingsley et ai. 1990). In this paper, we provide direct experimental evidence that sclerites from the alcyonian soft corals Sinularia spp. serve as antipredator defenses to generalist carnivorous fishes in the field. Soft corals of the genus Sinularia are widely distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific region (Verseveldt, 1977, 1980), and are an important compo- nent of shallow coral reef communities on Guam (Gawel, 1977). Sinularia spp. generally have a lobate morphology with an upper portion that contains polyps, and a lower sterile stalk (Verseveldt, 1977). The surface of the lobes contains small club-shaped sclerites, rods, and spindles (Verseveldt, 1980). We also document differences in sclerite morphologies and densities within soft coral col- onies and explore the consequences of these differences in deterring feeding by ^Cocos Lagoon Figure 1. Locations of the Fingers Reef and Cocos Lagoon study sites on Guam. Tips. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readab
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Keywords: ., bookauthorlilliefrankrat, booksubjectbiology, booksubjectzoology
