Food preferences of the sea urchin Diadema antillarum in Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, central-east Atlantic Ocean)

Abstract

Preferences of the sea urchin Diadema antillarum (Echinodermata: Echinoidea) feeding on five species of brown macroalgae (Padina pavonica, Dyctiota dychotoma, Cystoseira abies-marina, Lobophora variegata and Halopteris filicina) have been studied using caging field experiments on Gran Canaria Island during August to October 2000. Results of three assays of both single and multiple diet experiments rejected the null hypothesis that Diadema does not feed selectively on the five selected algal species. In the multiple diet assays, Diadema consumed an average of 68–98 mg algae urchin−1 h−1 and 4–120 mg algae urchin−1 h−1 in the single diet experiments. On the basis of consumption, the five species of algae eaten can be divided into three groups. Thus Halopteris, Lobophora and Dyctiota were considered preferred algae, while Padina was considered an intermediate alga. Finally Cystoseira was significantly the less preferred and consumed seaweed in all sets of assays.