Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 8.1
Common classifications of seaweed grazers
Grazer taxon
Feeding
mode
Size group
Diet specificity
Typical habitat
Selected examples
Amphipods
Biting
Tearing
Mesograzers
Specialists-generalists
Tropical rocky shores/
coral reefs
Temperate rocky
shores
Polar rocky shores
Pseudoamphithoides
feeds selectively on and
builds domiciles from the chemically
defended brown alga
Dictyota
(Hay et al.
1990a
)
Amphitoe
grazing is driven by food choice and
habitat quality of host algae (Duffy and Hay
1991
), and can control brown algal biomass
and competitive dominance in temperate
Atlantic reefs (Duffy and Hay
2000
)
Aora
is a generalist feeder on taxonomically
and morphologically diverse macroalgae in
New Zealand (Taylor and Brown
2006
)
Amphipods occur in high abundance on
Antarctic macroalgae (Huang et al.
2007
)
and
Gondogeneia
selectively feeds on the
red alga
Palmaria
(Amsler et al.
2009
;
Aumack et al.
2010
)
Isopods
Biting
Tearing
Mesograzers
Specialists
Intertidal/shallow
subtidal temperate
fucoid
communities
Idotea
influences biomass and distribution of
Fucus
in the Baltic Sea (Engkvist et al.
2000
) and of
Ascophyllum
in the North
Atlantic (Viejo and
˚
berg
2003
)
Idotea
controls epiphyte growth on
Fucus
induced by high nutrient loads (Worm et al.
2000
; Orav-Kotta and Kotta
2004
)
Polychaetes
Biting
Tearing
Mesograzers
Generalists
Temperate rocky
shores
Herbivorous polychaetes, mostly
Platynereis
,
preferentially feed on filamentous and
branched algae in the Mediterranean
(Antoniadou and Chintiroglou
2006
)
Prosobranch
gastropods
Rasping
Browsing
Mostly
mesograzers
Generalists
Temperate rocky
intertidal
Selective grazing of the periwinkle
Littorina
in
rocky tidepools controls abundance of the
dominant space competitor
Ulva
