Captive Breeding, Seed Production, Grow-out Culture and Biomedicinal Properties of the Commercially Important Sea Urchins (Echinodermata: Echinoidea)

Flowers of the commercially important tree Eucalyptus globulus Labill. ssp. globulus were visited by a wide variety of insects and birds within its natural distribution. Flowers were visited so frequently that most available nectar was consumed, but seed production within 5 m of the ground was consistently far less than the maximum possible, indicating the presence of large numbers of inefficient pollinators and few efficient pollinators. Pollen limitation was more severe on fully self-incompatible trees than on partially self-compatible trees, demonstrating that pollinator inefficiency resulted from infrequent outcrossing rather than inability to deposit pollen on stigmas. The flower visitors that were responsible for almost all nectar consumption from flowers within 5 m of the ground were insects that were able to permeate cages with 5-mm apertures but not cages with 1-mm apertures, the most abundant of which was the introduced honeybee Apis mellifera L. These insects contributed less than 20% of the maximum possible seed set, indicating that they were inefficient pollinators. Birds and smaller insects made lesser contributions to seed production, but consumed little nectar within 5 m of the ground. However, anthophilous birds appeared to mostly forage higher in the trees and probably consumed more nectar from, and provided more pollination services to, flowers higher in the trees.

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Pollinators in seed orchards of Eucalyptus nitens (Myrtaceae)

Australian Journal of Botany ◽

10.1071/bt03015 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 52 (2) ◽

pp. 209 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

A. B. Hingston ◽

P. B. McQuillan ◽

B. M. Potts

Keyword(s):

Seed Production ◽

Common Species ◽

Eucalyptus Nitens ◽

Floral Structure ◽

Seed Orchards ◽

The World ◽

Commercially Important ◽

Time Of Year ◽

Insect Activity ◽

Effective Pollinators

Flowers of the commercially important tree Eucalyptus nitens (Deane & Maiden) Maiden were visited by a diverse array of insects, but not by birds, in Tasmanian seed orchards. Most species of insects that visited the flowers of E. nitens are likely to be effective pollinators because all common species of visitors carried many grains of Eucalyptus pollen, and the open floral structure facilitates frequent insect contact with stigmas. Seed production also suggested that a wide variety of insects were effective pollinators because flowers were consistently well pollinated, despite differences in flower-visitor communities among orchards and particular branches of flowers. The generalised entomophilous pollination system of E. nitens suggests that effective pollinators should occur in seed orchards of this tree throughout the world, provided that flowering occurs at a time of year conducive to insect activity. Although a wide variety of insects appear to be effective pollinators of E. nitens, introduced honeybees, Apis mellifera L., that are often deployed as pollinators in seed orchards were consistently not attracted to the flowers. The reliance on wild insects as pollinators suggests that seed production in E. nitens may benefit from reduced use of broad-spectrum insecticides in, and near, seed orchards.

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Evaluation of the growth and heterosis of hybrids among three commercially important sea urchins in China: Strongylocentrotus nudus, S. intermedius and Anthocidaris crassispina

Aquaculture ◽

10.1016/j.aquaculture.2007.07.231 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 272 (1-4) ◽

pp. 273-280 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Jun Ding ◽

Yaqing Chang ◽

Changhai Wang ◽

Xuebin Cao

Keyword(s):

Sea Urchins ◽

Commercially Important ◽

Strongylocentrotus Nudus ◽

Anthocidaris Crassispina

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Effects of eliminating interactions in multi-layer culture on survival, food utilization and growth of small sea urchins Strongylocentrotus intermedius at high temperatures

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-94546-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Fangyuan Hu ◽

Xiaomei Chi ◽

Mingfang Yang ◽

Peng Ding ◽

Donghong Yin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Body Size ◽

High Temperatures ◽

Sea Urchins ◽

Control Group ◽

Food Utilization ◽

Strongylocentrotus Intermedius ◽

Pepsin Activity ◽

Poor Growth ◽

Important Species ◽

Commercially Important

AbstractPoor growth and disease transmission of small sea urchins Strongylocentrotus intermedius in summer greatly hamper the production efficiency of the longline culture. Reducing the adverse effects of high stocking density while maintaining high biomass is essential to address these problems. Here, we conducted a laboratory experiment to simulate the multi-layer culture for sea urchins at ambient high temperatures (from 22.2 to 24.5 °C) in summer for ~ 7 weeks. Survival, body size, lantern growth, gut weight, food consumption, Aristotle's lantern reflex, 5-hydroxytryptamine concentration, pepsin activity and gut morphology were subsequently evaluated. The present study found that multi-layer culture led to significantly larger body size than those without multi-layer culture (the control group). This was probably because of the greater feeding capacity (indicated by lantern growth and Aristotle's lantern reflex) and food digestion (indicated by morphology and pepsin activity of gut) in the multi-layer cultured sea urchins. These results indicate that multi-layer is an effective approach to improving the growth efficiency of sea urchins at high temperatures. We assessed whether eliminating interaction further improve these commercially important traits of sea urchins in multi-layer culture. This study found that eliminating interactions displayed greater body size and Aristotle's lantern reflex than those not separated in the multi-layer culture. This approach also significantly reduced the morbidity compared with the control group. These novel findings indicate that eliminating interactions in multi-layer culture greatly contributes to the growth and disease prevention of sea urchins at high temperatures. The present study establishes a new technique for the longline culture of sea urchins in summer and provides valuable information into the longline culture management of other commercially important species (e.g. scallops, abalones and oysters).

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