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Science 20 February 1981:
Vol. 211. no. 4484, pp. 846 - 848
DOI: 10.1126/science.211.4484.846
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Articles

Mutualism Among Sessile Invertebrates: A Mediator of Competition and Predation

RICHARD W. OSMAN 1 and JULIE ANN HAUGSNESS 1

1 Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara 93106

Hydroids of the genus Zanclea are epizoic on encrusting bryozoans. The bryozoans protect these hydroids with skeletal material. Zanclea polyps on the bryozoan Celleporaria brunnea sting small predators and adjacent competitors, helping Celleporaria to survive and to grow over competing species. This mutualism enables the two species to cover a larger area than they could individually.

Submitted on August 18, 1980
Revised on December 5, 1980


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Coral-Bryozoan Mutualism: Structural Innovation and Greater Resource Exploitaton.
F. K. McKinney, F. K. McKinney, T. W. Broadhead, and M. A. Gibson (1990)
Science 248, 466-468
   Abstract »    PDF »
Group Living, Competition, and the Evolution of Cooperation in a Sessile Invertebrate.
L. W. BUSS (1981)
Science 213, 1012-1014
   Abstract »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)