THE UTILIZATION dur ing starvation of the nutrient reserves in the gut of a temperate water sea urchin , Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, was measured by Lawrence et al. (1966) . There have been no investigations of the utilization of reserves in the gut of tropical urchins, although the level of reserves in the gut of several tropical species has been reported (Giese et al., 1964; Lawrence, 1967...

Background & Aims: Sea urchin immune responses are directly exposed to potentially pathogenic microorganisms and develop defence responses mainly based on immunocytes and humoral factors contained in the coelomic fluid. In addition, the polyhydroxylated 1, 4-naphthoquinone pigments are found to possess excellent antimicrobial, antialgal and antioxidant activities. The present ...

BACKGROUND The metabolic rate of consumers is a key driver of ecosystem dynamics. On coral reefs, herbivorous echinoids consume fleshy algae, facilitating the growth of reef-building calcified organisms; however, little is known about differences among species in their metabolic and functional ecology. Here, we used log-linear (log-log) regression models to examine the allometric scaling of mas...

The capacity to withstand and repair DNA damage differs among species and plays a role in determining an organism's resistance to genotoxicity, life history, and susceptibility to disease. Environmental stressors that affect organisms at the genetic level are of particular concern in ecotoxicology due to the potential for chronic effects and trans-generational impacts on populations. Echinoderm...