Rinkevich B, Loya Y
George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Dept. Zoology, Tel Aviv University, 69978, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Oecologia. 1985 Apr;66(1):100-105. doi: 10.1007/BF00378559.
Growth rates and reproduction of a branching coral (Stylophora pistillata) were compared in the presence and in the absence of intraspecific competition. Field experiments demonstrated a significant decline in the growth rate of competing colonies compared to noncompeting control colonies; the growth rate slowed in all of the interacting individuals, irrespective of their place in the hierarchy of the intraspecific dominance or of their color morph. In case of immediate killing of the subordinate, the dominant colony grew at a normal rate. In addition to the marked decrease in the growth rate of interacting colonies, the typical symmetry shape of these colonies was changed to an abnormal growth form. The number of female gonads per polyp was significantly reduced in colonies competing intraspecifically, and the typical synchrony in reproduction among different branches of a given colony was changed and desynchronized. Again, these results did not correlate with the hierarchy of dominance. We conclude that intraspecific competition in reef corals involves great investment of energy. The ecological significance and the different pathways of this competition are discussed.
在有和没有种内竞争的情况下，对一种分支珊瑚（细指鹿角珊瑚）的生长速率和繁殖情况进行了比较。野外实验表明，与非竞争对照群体相比，竞争群体的生长速率显著下降；所有相互作用的个体生长速率均减缓，无论它们在种内优势等级中的位置或颜色形态如何。如果立即杀死从属个体，优势群体则以正常速率生长。除了相互作用群体的生长速率显著降低外，这些群体典型的对称形状也转变为异常生长形式。在进行种内竞争的群体中，每个珊瑚虫的雌性性腺数量显著减少，并且给定群体不同分支之间典型的繁殖同步性发生改变且不同步。同样，这些结果与优势等级无关。我们得出结论，珊瑚礁珊瑚的种内竞争涉及大量能量投入。本文讨论了这种竞争的生态意义和不同途径。
