{"id":839,"date":"2014-04-15T18:12:16","date_gmt":"2014-04-15T22:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/?p=839"},"modified":"2014-04-15T18:12:38","modified_gmt":"2014-04-15T22:12:38","slug":"eco-watch-parasitic-flatworm-could-decimate-coral-reefs-worldwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/2014\/04\/15\/eco-watch-parasitic-flatworm-could-decimate-coral-reefs-worldwide\/","title":{"rendered":"Eco-Watch: Parasitic Flatworm Could Decimate Coral Reefs Worldwide"},"content":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/ecowatch.com\/2014\/04\/11\/parasitic-flatworm-decimate-coral-reefs\/<\/h1>\n
Yale Environment 360<\/a><\/span> | <\/span>April 11, 2014 3:38 pm<\/span> | <\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

A coral-eating flatworm with a unique camouflaging strategy could be a major threat to the world\u2019s coral reefs,\u00a0according to<\/a>\u00a0researchers in the U.K. The parasite, called\u00a0Amakusaplana acroporae<\/em>, infects a type of staghorn coral known as acropora, a major component of reefs, and can destroy its coral host very quickly.<\/p>\n

\"reefFI\"<\/span><\/a>
Acropora grandis (Staghorn coral) forest. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The parasite has been detected at the Great Barrier Reef, and because it has no known natural predators, researchers are concerned it could spread quickly and decimate reefs worldwide. A novel camouflaging strategy makes the flatworm difficult to detect and monitor, the researchers say.<\/p>\n

When eating the coral tissue, the worm also ingests the coral\u2019s symbiotic algae. Instead of digesting the algae completely, the worm keeps a fraction of them alive and distributes them, along with the fluorescent pigments that give coral its characteristic hue, throughout its gut so that it perfectly mimics the appearance of the coral.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/span><\/a>
This is an Amakusaplana flat worm. Photo credit: Professor J\u00f6rg Wiedenmann<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The parasite has been identified in numerous aquarium-based corals, and biologists worry that it could spread rapidly if aquarium-raised coral, fish or seaweed are introduced to natural reef environments.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2013Special thanks to Richard Charter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/ecowatch.com\/2014\/04\/11\/parasitic-flatworm-decimate-coral-reefs\/ Yale Environment 360 | April 11, 2014 3:38 pm | A coral-eating flatworm with a unique camouflaging strategy could be a major threat to the world\u2019s coral reefs,\u00a0according to\u00a0researchers in the U.K. The parasite, called\u00a0Amakusaplana acroporae, infects a type of staghorn coral known as acropora, a major component of reefs, and can destroy its … Continue reading Eco-Watch: Parasitic Flatworm Could Decimate Coral Reefs Worldwide<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coral-reef-ecology","category-oceanography"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":841,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions\/841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}