Lophelia pertusa
Lophelia pertusa (Linnaeus, 1758)
Overview
Comprehensive Description
Lophelia pertusa is an azooxanthellate (i.e., has no symbiotic photosynthetic algal partner) scleractinian ("stony") coral. It is thought to be distributed throughout the world oceans, except in polar seas, and forms deep-water reefs on continental slopes, mid-oceanic ridges and fjords. It is the main reef-building species in the northeast Atlantic. It is also a major constituent of deep reefs off the eastern US coast in the western North Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. The shallowest record for L. pertusa is in a Norwegian fjord (39 meters); more typically, this species is found between around 200 and 1000 meters in depth, although it may occur down to 1200 meters or more. Deep reefs provide habitat for an ecologically diverse megafauna, are likely centuries old, and little is known about basic biology, larval dispersal, and connectivity between reefs (LeGoff-Vitry et al. 2004 and references therein; Morrison et al. 2008)
Rights holder(s): Shapiro, Leo - Comment (0)
Ecology
Associations
Cordes et al. (2008) studied the role of the habitat provided by Lophelia pertusa in the ecology of upper slope Gulf of Mexico communities. On the upper slope of the northern Gulf of Mexico, L. pertusa creates habitat for a group of casual associates as well as a small number of species that may be strictly associated with coral. Although the majority of species in close association with L. pertusa were from the background fauna, a few species have only been collected along with L. pertusa to date, for example, the polychaete Eunice sp., the gastropod Coralliophila sp., and two species of ophiuroids. Eunice sp. is likely to be similar in habit to Eunice norvegica on the L. pertusa reefs of Norway, which has been shown to play a role in joining pieces of coral skeleton together by building a parchment-like tube that is subsequently calcified by L. pertusa. Coralliophila species are known corallivores on tropical coral reefs in the Caribbean, Red Sea, and Indo-Pacific and have been observed to do significant damage to Acropora colonies in the Caribbean. The species of Coralliophila in this study may have a similar negative impact on L. pertusa, although it is also possible that Coralliophila sp. may selectively graze on other species of solitary coral or octocorals, thereby limiting the amount of colonization and potential overgrowth of live coral. (Cordes et al. 2008 and references therein)
Rights holder(s): Shapiro, Leo - Comment (0)