Centrostephanus rodgersii and Centrostephanus tenuispinus

• Main Authors: Byrne, Maria, Andrew, Neil L
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Research Online 2020
• Subjects: Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://ro.uow.edu.au/lhapapers/4114

2020 Elsevier B.V. Arbacia is the unique among shallow echinoid genus, not in line with the general rule that sea urchins should be either entirely tropical or entirely temperate, with limited overlap in the subtropics. Six extant Arbacia species have been described by Mortensen. The genus Arbacia has a Neotropical origin and four different fossil species have been described from the Late Miocene. Over the past century, Arbacia has been the object of intensive investigations into the cell biology, toxicology, biochemistry, and embryology. Recently, renewed interest in this genus arose from its phylogeny, ecology and its resilience to ocean warming and acidification. According to several studies, impacts of ocean acidification on Arbacia, growth, from the juvenile to mature adult life-stage transition, seems to be mitigated by warming. Functional studies showed that some Arbacia species play an important role in the ecology of rocky reefs. Manipulative experiments have shown a leading role of Arbacia species in maintaining the coralline barren habitat. All species of Arbacia are omnivorous, with a strong tendency to carnivory. They are able to scrape fleshy algae, sea grasses, encrusting algae, barnacle shells, and hard calcareous tubes of polychaetes from the substrata, thanks to their large Aristotle's lantern, indicative of a durophagic habit. Arbacia is a gonochoric genus with a very early maturity. Generally, Arbacia species show a reproductive cycle typically annual or semiannual.