RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Assessing population structure of Diadema antillarum in a shallow reef of the southeastern coast of the Dominican Republic
A1 Can, Ivan
A1 Sellares, Rita
A1 Croquer, Aldo
K1 Diadema antillarum
K1 Dominican Republic
K1 density
K1 test size
AB The sea urchin Diadema antillarum is an herbivore that plays an important ecological rolein controlling benthic community structure in Caribbean reefs. After the mass mortalitydocumented between 1982-1983, their populations were reduced by 94-99% triggering aphase shift from coral to macroalgae-dominated benthic communities across the Caribbean.Almost 4 decades after its regional collapse, it is not clear weather D. antillarum populationsare recovering, thus local surveys are valuable to track the fate of this herbivore. This studyaims to determine the population structure of this sea urchin in a shallow reef locatedsoutheast of the Dominican Republic. We conducted a visual survey in three haphazardlyselected sites of the reef studying a total surface of 90 m2 in which test size and D. antillarumdensities were measured. Overall, the mean density of D. antillarum was 1.77 ± 1.07ind/ m2 (Mean ± SD) with an average test size of 67.3 ± 22.7 mm (Mean ± SD) a median of70 mm and a mode of 80 mm. Test diameter had a platykurtic distribution (kurtosis = 2.53)slightly skewed to the left (skewness = -0.1). This information is valuable to establish a localbaseline to follow up the population dynamics of this key species.
PB Universidad de La Laguna. Servicio de Publicaciones
SN e-2659-6644
YR 2021
FD 2021
LK http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/26569
UL http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/26569
LA en
DS Repositorio institucional de la Universidad de La Laguna
RD 25-nov-2024