Publications by authors named "R Rodolfo-Metalpa"
Article Synopsis
- Cleaner fish play a vital role in coral reef ecosystems by removing ectoparasites from other fish, known as clients, highlighting the importance of mutualistic relationships in marine communities.
- A study conducted in New Caledonia identified 233 genes that are activated in cleaner fish when interacting with clients, revealing new insights into the neural mechanisms behind their cleaning behavior.
- Key findings included the involvement of neurotransmitters and immediate early genes related to learning and memory, with a novel discovery of neuropeptide Y influencing feeding behavior in these interactions.
Article Synopsis
- Climate change is simplifying both land and marine ecosystems, impacting species communities.
- A study in Papua New Guinea found that volcanic CO seepage leads to an increase in massive corals and a decrease in branching corals, significantly reducing damselfish populations by 60% to 86%.
- Fish behavior is more influenced by changes in coral structure than by ocean acidification itself, revealing that habitat health plays a key role in shaping reef fish communities in the future.
Widespread coral bleaching has generally been linked to high water temperatures at larger geographic scales. However, the bleaching response can be highly variable among individual of the same species, between different species, and across localities; what causes this variability remains unresolved. Here, we tracked bleached and non-bleached colonies of Acropora muricata to see if they recovered or died following a stress event inside the semi-enclosed lagoon of Bouraké (New Caledonia), where corals are long-term acclimatized to extreme conditions of temperature, pH and dissolved oxygen, and at a nearby control reef where conditions are more benign.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOcean acidification (OA) is a severe threat to coral reefs mainly by reducing their calcification rate. Identifying the resilience factors of corals to decreasing seawater pH is of paramount importance to predict the survivability of coral reefs in the future. This study compared corals adapted to variable pH (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- The decline of coral reefs has sparked interest in marginal and extreme coral communities, which may offer insights into resilience and surviving climate change.
- Definitions for these communities have been inconsistent, complicating research and understanding their ecological roles and survival strategies.
- The proposed framework distinguishes between marginality (based on ecological criteria) and extremeness (based on environmental conditions), emphasizing the need for a better classification to enhance conservation efforts and future research.