The Shima Lab

STUDYING LIFE HISTORIES AND POPULATION DYNAMICS IN THE SEA

Cryptic ecological interactions that determine reef biodiversity

Many species that inhabit complex ecosystems (e.g., coral reefs or temperate rocky reefs) are unstudied, and their effects on the community remain unknown. Would we miss them if they were gone?

In some cases, these overlooked species can have surprisingly large effects in an ecological system. We are particularly interested in these species and their interactions. Much of our recent work has focused on the effects of unobtrusive and uncharismatic “worm snails” (=vermetid gastropods). Our work in this system has documented deleterious effects of vermetids on growth, morphology and survival of a range of coral species (Shima et al. 2010, 2013, 2015). This discovery motivated other studies that identified mediators of this effect (e.g., coral guard crabs: Stier et al 2010; live coral: Phillips et al. 2014; extended phenotypes: Brown et al. 2021), and drivers of vermetid population dynamics (e.g., predators: Brown et al 2019; mass mortality events: Brown et al. 2016).

In 2015, the vermetid species that motivated much of this work (Ceraesignum maximum, formerly of the genus Dendropoma) went extinct on the island of Mo’orea. Our ongoing work continues to explore the consequences of this extinction, and seeks an explanation for its cause (which remains a mystery).

Key Collaborators

Craig Osenberg – University of Georgia
Tom Frazer—University of Florida
Anya Brown—Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
Adrian Stier—University of California, Santa Barbara

For more information, see:

Research publications

Shima, J.S., C.W. Osenberg, A.C. Stier. (2010) The vermetid gastropod Dendropoma maximum reduces coral growth and survival. Biology Letters 6: 815-818.

Stier, A.C., C.S. McKeon, C.W. Osenberg, and J.S. Shima (2010) Guard crabs alleviate deleterious effects of vermetid snails on a branching coral. Coral Reefs 29:1019-1022

Shima, J.S., N.E. Phillips, and C.W. Osenberg. (2013). Consistent deleterious effects of vermetid gastropods on coral performance Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 439:1-6.

Phillips, N.E., J.S. Shima, and C.W. Osenberg (2014) Live coral cover may provide resilience to damage from the vermetid gastropod Dendropoma maximum by preventing larval settlement. Coral Reefs 33:1137–1144.

Shima, J.S., D. McNaughtan, and A.T. Strong. (2015) Vermetid gastropods mediate within-colony variation in coral growth to induce a flattened colony morphology. Marine Biology 162:1523–1530.

Shima, J.S., N.E. Phillips and C.W.Osenberg (2016) Variation in the growth and survival of the tropical vermetid gastropod Ceraesignum maximum is driven by size, habitat and density. Marine Biology 163:84.

Brown, A.L., T.K. Frazer, J.S. Shima, and C.W. Osenberg (2016) Mass mortality of the vermetid gastropod Ceraesignum maximum. Coral Reefs

Brown A.L., T.K Frazer, G. Li, J.R. Hilsenroth, J.S. Shima, and C.W. Osenberg. (2019) Hidden predators on coral reefs: muricid consumption of vermetids. Marine Ecology Progress Series 615: 121-131

Brown A.L., E.A. Hamman, J.S. Shima, J.P. Wares and C.W. Osenberg. (2021) Extended phenotypes on coral reefs: cryptic phenotypes modulate coral-vermetid interactions. Ecology e03215.