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Morphologically plastic responses to shading in the zoanthids Zoanthus sansibaricus and Palythoa tuberculosa

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Abstract

Zoanthids of the order Zoantharia (Anthozoa: Hexacorallia) exhibit high intraspecific morphological variability, but whether this is due to polymorphism, phenotypic plasticity or a combination of both remains unknown. To address this knowledge gap, in November 2010, eight colonies each of Zoanthus sansibaricus and Palythoa tuberculosa were sampled from three reefs off the south of mainland Singapore and transplanted to a shallow experimental site. The colonies were then distributed under two types of treatment frames: control and shaded. After 87 days, morphometric characters were extracted from macro-images. Reaction norms, principal components analysis, analysis of variance and canonical discriminant analysis all demonstrated light-induced changes in morphology. Patterns of plastic changes were similar for both species: shaded colonies had larger polyps as compared to control colonies. The presence of plastic responses in zoanthids may facilitate their colonization of a broad range of habitats as well as help them to withstand temporal changes in their environment.

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Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Sam Lai and Rosa Poquita for field assistance and the team from the Experimental Marine Ecology Laboratory, NUS, Singapore, for advice and ideas. We also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions. This research was carried out as part of Singapore Delft Water Alliance’s Marine & Coastal Research Programme (Theme 2): ‘Dredging and infrastructure development near critical marine ecosystems’ (R-264-001-001-272) with additional support from the NParks-funded project: “Impacts of ship-wake-induced sediment resuspension on coral reefs and sea grass in Singapore.”

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  1. Experimental Marine Ecology Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science Drive 4, Blk S1 #02-05, Singapore, 117543, Singapore

    Chin Wei Ong & Peter A. Todd

  2. DHI Water & Environment (S) Pte Ltd, 1 CleanTech Loop #03-05 CleanTech One, Singapore, 637141, Singapore

    Chin Wei Ong

  3. Rising Star Program, Trans-disciplinary Research Organization of Subtropical Science, University of the Ryukyus, 1 Senbaru, Nishihara, Okinawa, 903-0213, Japan

    James D. Reimer

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  1. Chin Wei Ong
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Correspondence to Peter A. Todd.

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Communicated by R. Hill.

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Ong, C.W., Reimer, J.D. & Todd, P.A. Morphologically plastic responses to shading in the zoanthids Zoanthus sansibaricus and Palythoa tuberculosa . Mar Biol 160, 1053–1064 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-012-2158-4

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