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Bryoliths constructed by bryozoans in symbiotic associations with hermit crabs in a tropical heterozoan carbonate system, Golfe d’Arguin, Mauritania

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Abstract

The Golfe d’Arguin offshore of northern Mauritania hosts a rare modern analogue for heterozoan carbonate production in a tropical marine setting. Dominated by ocean upwelling and with additional fertilisation by iron-rich aeolian dust, this naturally eutrophic marine environment lacks typical photozoan communities. A highly productive, tropical cosmopolitan biota dominated by molluscs and suspension-feeders such as bryozoans and balanids characterises the carbonate-rich surface sediments. Overall biodiversity is relatively low and the species present are tolerant against the eutrophic and low-light conditions, the strong hydrodynamic regime governed by ocean upwelling, and the unstable, soft-bottom seafloor with few hard substrata. Here, we describe an ectosymbiosis between the hermit crab Pseudopagurus granulimanus (Miers, 1881) and monospecific assemblages of the encrusting cheilostome bryozoan Acanthodesia commensale (Kirkpatrick and Metzelaar, 1922) that cohabits vacant gastropod shells. Nucleating on an empty gastropod shell, the bryozoan colonies form multilamellar skeletal crusts that produce spherical encrustations and extend the living chamber of the hermit crab through helicospiral tubular growth. This non-obligate mutualistic symbiosis illustrates the adaptive capabilities and benefits from a close partnership in a complex marine environment, driven by trophic conditions, high water energies and instable substratum. Sectioned bryoliths show that between 49 and 97 % of the solid volume of the specimens consists of bryozoan skeleton.

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Acknowledgments

Participants and crew of the “Maria S. Merian” Cruise MSM 16 leg 3 are gratefully acknowledged for providing support and sample background data. Claire Reymond and Julien Michel (both ZMT-Bremen, Germany) are acknowledged for stimulating discussions and comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. Susan M. Kidwell and an anonymous reviewer provided thought-provoking reviews for which we are grateful. The project was funded through the DFG-Research Center/Cluster of Excellence “The Ocean in the Earth System”, project SD-2 and is part of the PhD thesis of André Klicpera.

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  1. ZMT—Leibniz-Center for Tropical Marine Ecology, Bremen, Germany

    A. Klicpera & H. Westphal

  2. MARUM—Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    A. Klicpera

  3. Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, UK

    P. D. Taylor

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  1. A. Klicpera
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  2. P. D. Taylor
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Correspondence to A. Klicpera.

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Bivalve shells and bryoliths collected by dredging during the cruise of the R/V Al Awam (IMROP) in late 2012. (JPEG 1224 kb)

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Klicpera, A., Taylor, P.D. & Westphal, H. Bryoliths constructed by bryozoans in symbiotic associations with hermit crabs in a tropical heterozoan carbonate system, Golfe d’Arguin, Mauritania. Mar Biodiv 43, 429–444 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-013-0173-4

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