Holothurians, our beloved sea cucumbers, are quite interesting organisms, rather amenable for subtidal experimentation. A recent PhD student from the lab (Pablo G. Navarro) has just published an extra chapter from his Thesis, where we tested whether the abundance, particulate organic matter (POM) consumption and displacement of a particular sea cucumber species, Holothuria arguinensis in this case, differed between two adjacent, vegetated, habitats (macroalgal dominated beds and seagrass meadows formed by Cymodocea nodosa). This study sums up to a previous study with Holothuria santori, and provides empirical evidence of a clear connection between the movement an selectivity for POM of sea cucumbers: non selective species ‘travel’ more distance on the seabed than selective species, which tend to remain within particular areas. Check out the results by downloading the paper from the articles section of this webpage.
