Macintyre, I.G.; Rützler, K.; Norris, J.N.; Fauchald, K. (1982). A submarine cave near Columbus Cay, Belize: a bizarre cryptic habitat. In: K. Rützler and I.G. Macintyre (Eds.). The Atlantic Barrier Reef Ecosystem at Carrie Bow Bay, Belize, I: Structure and Communities. Washington, DC,. Smithsonian Press, Smithsonian Contributions to Marine Science. 127-141.

68663

Macintyre, I.G.; Rützler, K.; Norris, J.N.; Fauchald, K.

1982

127-141

Publication

https://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/1116

World Polychaeta Database (WPolyDb); issued June 10 1982

Available for editors   [request]

An unusual cryptic habitat having an extensive covering of serpulid worms has been discovered in a submerged Pleistocene cave in the Belize barrier-reef platform near Columbus Cay. Aggregates of serpulids, which have been named "pseudostalactites," project from the ceiling of this cave in the direction of a narrow opening (10 m long and less than 3 m wide) that breaches the roof of the cave at a water depth of 17 m. Apparently this opening has restricted the movement of water within the cave so that serpulid worms have become more abundant on the ceiling than other cryptobiota, which include some sponges, filamentous algae, mollusks, and bryozoans. The latter group, with the exception of boring bivalves, occurs only within a radius of 25 m from the entrance of the cave. The pseudostalactites are composed mainly of serpulids belonging to two species of the Vermiliopsis glandigera infundibulum group and extend at least 40 m from the cave opening, which is the limit of our observations. Varying amounts of submarine cement consisting of magnesium calcite form a coating on, or matrix in, the serpulid aggregations. A barren sediment cone (very fine sand to mud) occurs at a depth of 30 m below the cave opening.

Caribbean region

Anchihaline
Benthos
Community, Assemblages, Competition
Ecology
Hard substrates
Spacial and ecological distribution, Zonation, Microdistribution

Annelida
Polychaeta
Porifera

RIS (EndNote, Reference Manager, ProCite, RefWorks)
BibTex (BibDesk, LaTeX)

[Back to search]