Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA.
Adv Mar Biol. 2012;63:67-132. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-394282-1.00002-8.
Antipatharians, commonly known as black corals, are treasured by many cultures for medicinal purposes and to produce jewellery. Despite their economic and cultural importance, very little is known about the basic biology and ecology of black corals because most species inhabit deeper-water environments (>50m) which are logistically challenging to study. There has been a recent increase of studies focusing on antipatharians; however, these have not yet been comprehensively reviewed. This literature review seeks to summarize the available information on the biology and ecology of antipatharians. Although black corals occur throughout all oceans and from subtidal to abyssal depths, they are particularly common in tropical and subtropical regions at depths below 50m. Antipatharians are generally found in areas with hard substrates, low-light and strong currents. Under favourable conditions, some black coral species form dense aggregations to the point of becoming ecologically dominant. Zooplankton appears to be the major component of the diet of black corals, which feed as suspension feeders and use mucus and nematocysts to capture their prey. Previously categorized as azooxanthellate corals, recent research has revealed that many antipatharians appear capable of harbouring symbionts, but unlike other corals, dinoflagellates of the genus Symbiodinium are generally not important to the nutrition of black corals. Antipatharians reproduce through both sexual and asexual processes. In general, polyps and colonies are gonochoric, with fertilization and larval development likely occurring externally; however, to date antipatharian larvae have only been observed for a single species. Antipatharians are generally slow-growing and long-lived organisms with maximum longevities ranging from decades to millennia. Black corals are more abundant with depth, a pattern which has been hypothesized to avoid competition with obligate photosynthetic fauna. Additionally, antipatharians may compete for space by using sweeper tentacles and secondary metabolites. With the exception of a few predators such as gastropods and green sea turtles, antipatharians appear to be little impacted by predation. Like other corals, antipatharians can be habitat engineers of importance to a myriad of associated organisms including arthropods, annelids, echinoderms, mollusks, sponges and cnidarians, several of which are adapted to live exclusively on black corals. Given that most black coral species inhabit remote environments, our understanding of these organisms will depend on our ability to effectively sample and study them. Future collections, particularly in deeper waters (>50m), will be needed to determine whether antipatharian species have limited biogeographical distributions or whether this has simply been an artefact of low sampling efforts away from population centres and taxonomic uncertainties within this group. Additionally, biological and ecological studies require increased sample sizes because most information is currently derived from the examination of only a handful of specimens.
抗生物，通常被称为黑珊瑚，因其药用价值和制作珠宝而受到许多文化的珍视。尽管它们具有经济和文化重要性，但由于大多数物种栖息在更深的水域（> 50 米），因此对黑珊瑚的基本生物学和生态学知之甚少，这些水域在后勤方面难以研究。最近越来越多的研究关注抗生物；然而，这些研究尚未得到全面审查。本文献综述旨在总结有关抗生物生物学和生态学的现有信息。尽管黑珊瑚分布于所有海洋，从潮间带到深海，但它们在 50 米以下的热带和亚热带地区特别常见。抗生物通常存在于硬底质、低光照和强流的区域。在有利条件下，一些黑珊瑚物种形成密集的聚集，成为生态优势种。浮游动物似乎是黑珊瑚的主要食物成分，它们作为悬浮食者进食，并使用粘液和刺丝囊捕获猎物。以前被归类为无共生藻珊瑚，最近的研究表明，许多抗生物似乎能够容纳共生体，但与其他珊瑚不同，双鞭毛藻属的共生藻并不是黑珊瑚营养的重要组成部分。抗生物通过有性和无性过程繁殖。一般来说，息肉和群体是雌雄异体的，受精和幼虫发育可能在外部发生；然而，迄今为止，仅观察到一种抗生物的幼虫。抗生物生长缓慢，寿命长，最长寿命从几十年到几千年不等。黑珊瑚随深度增加而变得更加丰富，这种模式被假设为避免与必需的光合作用动物竞争。此外，抗生物可能通过使用清扫触手和次生代谢物来争夺空间。除了少数捕食者，如腹足类和绿海龟，抗生物似乎很少受到捕食的影响。与其他珊瑚一样，抗生物可以是重要的栖息地工程师，对包括节肢动物、环节动物、棘皮动物、软体动物、海绵和刺胞动物在内的许多相关生物具有重要意义，其中一些生物专门生活在黑珊瑚上。由于大多数黑珊瑚物种栖息在偏远环境中，我们对这些生物的了解将取决于我们有效采样和研究它们的能力。未来的采集，特别是在更深的水域（> 50 米），将需要确定抗生物种是否具有有限的生物地理分布，或者这是否仅仅是由于远离种群中心和该组内的分类不确定性而导致的低采样努力的结果。此外，生物学和生态学研究需要增加样本量，因为目前大多数信息都来自对少数几个标本的检查。
