Fig 1.
Colony of Acropora cervicornis with examples of (a) a damselfish algal lawn (solid circle) and chimneys formed by damselfish bites (dashed circle), and (b) a resident farming damselfish, Stegastes planifrons.
Chimneys are formed as the coral attempts to recover tissue damaged due to repeated biting by damselfishes.
Fig 2.
Location of sites along the Florida Reef Tract surveyed to investigate damselfish occupational dynamics and impacts.
Open circles indicate sites where only wild staghorn colonies were observed. Black circles indicate sites where nursery-grown colonies were outplanted as part of restoration activities.
Fig 3.
Probability of damselfish occupancy and formation of algal lawns based on Acropora cervicornis colony size and complexity (# of branches).
Fig 4.
Prevalence of sources of coral mortality (gray bars) and severity of impacts expressed as the mean percentage of tissue mortality on A. cervicornis colonies (black bars ± SE).
Letters reference statistical difference in the mean percentage of tissue mortality of each coral colony affected by mortality between sources (one-way ANOVA; p<0.001).