Sea cucumbers, seafloor scavengers that resemble the cylindrical vegetable, have been eaten as a delicacy in Asia for hundreds of years. But in recent a long time they’ve been so heavily overfished that they are actually quite rare. New research I actually have been involved in suggests that their reintroduction could play a very important role in protection and revitalization one other style of endangered marine organism: corals.
Coral reefs are in decline worldwide, partly attributable to Diseases, a few of that are related to sediments on the ocean floor. In several field experiments with corals in Moorea, French Polynesia and across the Palmyra Atoll, researchers Cody Clements and metogether with two other colleagues who study marine microbes, found that sea cucumbers grazed and consumed bacteria within the sediment and that the presence of the ocean cucumbers prevented pathogens from infecting neighboring corals.
We found this out by either removing sea cucumbers from certain patches of sand and leaving them in others, or by keeping corals in cages with and without sea cucumbers. In each experiments, corals near sea cucumbers were significantly less more likely to develop into sick and die.
Sea cucumbers are the caretakers of the tropical seas. Just as a vacuum cleaner sucks up dirt and fills its bag, sea cucumbers eat bacteria and decaying organic matter from the ocean floor and convert it into sea cucumber body mass, reducing the “food” available for the expansion of microbial pathogens.
Overfishing of sea cucumbers over the past hundred years, but especially prior to now few a long time, could have contributed to the dire state of today's coral reefs. Imagine when you stopped vacuuming a teen's room. It gets messy and dirty in a short time and eventually becomes unhealthy. That's exactly what's happening to coral reefs, especially as humans warm the oceans and add organic matter and nutrients that encourage microbial growth and pathogens. And these changes are happening against a backdrop of additional stresses, reminiscent of warming oceans and overfishing of fish species which might be vital to coral health and survival.
In fact, the ocean cucumber population is so low that my team and I had been trying for years to search out a spot where there have been enough sea cucumbers to check their impact on the general community.
Coral reefs are declining dramatically, especially as temperatures rise and humans proceed to pollute the ocean. Coral reefs support about 25% of marine biodiversityand a whole lot of thousands and thousands of individuals depend upon reefs for food security, tourism and protection from storm waves.
While reintroducing sea cucumbers alone is unlikely to save lots of coral reefs, it could help slow reef loss, giving countries more time to scale back ocean warming, overfishing and pollution, and ultimately stabilize the vital ecosystem services provided by corals.
image credit : theconversation.com