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11th ICRS Abstract book - Nova Southeastern University

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Poster Mini-Symposium 10: Ecological Processes on Today's Reef Ecosystems<br />

10.265<br />

Zoantharia Habitat Preference Depending On Host Sponge Morphology<br />

Alberto ACOSTA* 1 , Javier MONTENEGRO* 2<br />

1 Biology, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogota, Colombia, 2 Pontificia Universidad<br />

Javeriana, Bogota, Colombia<br />

Population’s habitat preference is hard to estimate for some species due to their complex<br />

life histories, spatial and temporal variation in resource selection criteria by organisms,<br />

and difficulty in habitat delimitation. Some symbiotic genera of zoantharian<br />

(Hexacorallia) can serve as optimal models to evaluate habitat preference, not only<br />

because their habitat (host sponge) could be easily delimited, but also because the habitat<br />

selected by larvae will have an effect in the fitness of the adult colony. According to this,<br />

we studied the Parazoanthus and Epizoanthus genera in order to demonstrate whether<br />

their habitat preference is related to sponge (host) morphology. The presence/absence of<br />

zoanthids in a total of 1,068 sponges was recorded in San Andres Island (Caribbean). The<br />

sponge shape was categorized as: cup, tubular, encrusting, globular and branching, and<br />

the mechanic resistance (MR) as: compressible, elastic, and fragile. Habitat preference<br />

was evaluated using the most important indices and Bonferroni confidence intervals. 109<br />

zoantharian colonies were associated to sponges (10.2%) of which 85 and 24 were<br />

Parazoanthus (8.0%) and Epizoanthus (2.2%) respectively. The colony frequency of both<br />

genera was significantly dependent of the sponge shape and MR (p

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