Ecology of many sea cucumbers, including the world’s heaviest holothuroid Thelenota anax, remains understudied, hindering effective fisheries management and conservation. We located, measured and weighed 38 T. anax over 10 days at Lizard Island, northeast Australia. Body length alone was a suitable predictor of body weight for this species. Short-term (1–4 h) rates of displacement and sediment defecation were measured on 30 animals across three sites. The animals were highly mobile, moving, on average, 57 cm h−1 (± 11 SE), and reworking 34 g dry weight of sediment h−1 (± 7 SE). The animals moved more and defecated more sediments in areas where surrounding sediments had lower levels of organic matter. Defecation rates increased through daytime hours. The high mobility of T. anax should confer an advantage for mate-finding but also could increase spillover from small marine reserves into fishing grounds. Our findings galvanise a pattern of high mobility in larger holothuroids and show that food resources and time of day modulate the extent of sediment reworking by deposit feeding holothuroids. The high sediment turnover rate highlights the detrimental effect that overfishing of these large holothuroids will have on the health of coastal marine ecosystems.

中文翻译：

---

不那么缓慢：世界上最重的全息鱼 Thelenota anax 的运动和沉积物周转

许多海参的生态学，包括世界上最重的海参 Thelenota anax，仍未得到充分研究，阻碍了有效的渔业管理和保护。我们在 10 天内在澳大利亚东北部的蜥蜴岛对 38 T. anax 进行了定位、测量和称重。仅体长是该物种体重的合适预测指标。测量了三个地点的 30 只动物的短期（1-4 小时）位移和沉积物排便率。动物是高度移动的，平均移动 57 cm h-1 (± 11 SE)，并重新加工 34 g 干重的沉积物 h-1 (± 7 SE)。在周围沉积物有机物含量较低的地区，动物移动得更多，排便更多的沉积物。排便率在白天增加。T的高流动性 anax 应该赋予寻找配偶的优势，但也可能增加从小型海洋保护区到渔场的溢出。我们的研究结果激发了较大的海参的高流动性模式，并表明食物资源和一天中的时间通过沉积物喂养海参来调节沉积物再加工的程度。高沉积物周转率凸显了过度捕捞这些大型海参对沿海海洋生态系统健康的不利影响。