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Polyp bailout and reattachment of the abundant Caribbean octocoral Eunicea flexuosa

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Abstract

Anthozoans exhibit great plasticity in their responses to stressful conditions, including decreasing individual size, detaching from the substratum and relocating, and releasing endosymbiotic microalgae. Another response to stress used by some colonial anthozoans is polyp bailout, in which the coenenchyme breaks down and individual polyps detach from the colony. We observed polyp bailout in the common Caribbean gorgonian Eunicea flexuosa after 8 h of aerial exposure. After 9 days, 28% of bailed-out polyps reattached, although none opened to resume feeding. Polyp bailout is a costly and high-risk escape response, but reattachment indicates that this can be a genet-saving behavior in cases where whole-colony mortality is likely. While it has been described in two octocorals, several species of scleractinians, and one black coral, we still do not know how widespread this behavior is in anthozoans.

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Acknowledgements

This work was completed under permits from the Virgin Islands National Park (VIIS-2019-SCI-0011) and the Virgin Islands Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW19010) and was funded by the National Science Foundation (OCE 1756381). We thank the Virgin Islands Environmental Research Station and the University of the Virgin Islands for laboratory space, L. Bramanti, H.R. Lasker, Á. Martínez-Quintana, and A.M. Wilson for field and laboratory assistance, and E.R. Anderson, H.R. Lasker, and Á. Martínez-Quintana for reading and commenting on the manuscript. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this article.

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  1. Department of Geology, University At Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Christopher D. Wells

  2. Department of Integrative Biology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Kaitlyn J. Tonra

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  1. Christopher D. Wells
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  2. Kaitlyn J. Tonra
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Correspondence to Christopher D. Wells.

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Wells, C.D., Tonra, K.J. Polyp bailout and reattachment of the abundant Caribbean octocoral Eunicea flexuosa. Coral Reefs 40, 27–30 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-020-02043-0

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