Table of Contents

• Coverage
• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
  • Data Processing Description
• Data Files
• Related Publications
• Parameters
• Deployments
• Project Information
• Funding

This dataset is part 1 of a 2 part manipulative experiment to investigate the existence of cooperative synergy in defensive behaviors of ‘guard’ crustaceans at Gump Research Station, Moorea, French Polynesia. Please reference the Related Datasets for additional datasets.

Related Datasets:

• McKeon_et_al_2012 Multiple Defender Effects: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/727093 (current page)
• McKeon_et_al_2012 Multiple Defender Effects Symbiont Behavior: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/727125

We used feeding trials to quantify the efficacy of defense for four exosymbiont treatment groups: Trapezia + Alpheus, Trapezia, Alpheus, and No Exosymbionts. Twenty replicates in total were conducted for each exosymbiont treatment in a temporally blocked design with two replicates in each of ten temporal blocks. Trials were conducted in a large octagonal flow-through seawater tank approximately 0.5 m deep and 2 m across. The tank was divided into eight equal sections using plastic screening. Each section was provisioned with a seastar refugium constructed from concrete blocks. We placed Pocillopora colonies into the tank from the field during mid- to late afternoon. To minimize variation driven by search time, a single Culcita was placed directly on top of the coral colony. The following morning, we measured the coral size (length, width, height) and the feeding scars left by the Culcita (length, width, depth). We calculated volume consumed as an ellipsoid (4= 3pabc , where a  is half the length, b is half the width, and c  is half the depth).

We calculated volume consumed as an ellipsoid (4/ 3*pi*abc, where a  is half the length, b is half the width, and c is half the depth).

BCO-DMO Processing:

• added conventional header with dataset name, PI name, version date
• modified parameter names to conform with BCO-DMO naming conventions
• converted date from mm/dd/yyyy to yyyymmdd.
• adjusted NA values to nd for BCO-DMO system.

Description from NSF award abstract:
Ecologists have long been interested in the factors that drive spatial and temporal variability in population density and structure. In marine reef systems, attention has focused on the role of settlement-the transition of pelagic larvae to a benthic stage-and on density-dependent processes affecting recently settled juveniles. Recent data suggest that co-variance in settlement and subsequent density-dependent survival can obscure the patterns of density dependence at larger scales, a phenomenon called cryptic density dependence. This research will explore the mechanisms that underlie the spatial covariance of settlement and site quality - a process that has received little attention in the standard paradigm. These mechanistic studies of cryptic density dependence will facilitate the development of new frameworks for fish population dynamics that incorporate larval ecology, habitat quality, density dependence, life history, and the patterns and implications of spatial covariance among these factors. More generally, the work provides a specific empirical context, and a general theoretical treatment, of cryptic heterogeneity (hidden individual variation in demographic rates).

Note: Drs. Craig W. Osenberg and Ben Bolker were at the University of Florida at the time the NSF award was granted. Dr. Osenberg moved to the University of Georgia during the summer of 2014 (current contact information). Dr. Bolker moved to McMaster University in 2010 (current contact information).