Parrotfish grazing on coral reefs : a trophic novelty

Parrotfish (family Scaridae) are grazers that are restricted to shallow tropical marine environments, and form an important component of the herbivore assemblage on Caribbean and Indo-Pacific coral reefs. Most scarid species have fused jaw teeth with which they scrape off algae that grow on and in dead coral substrates. Along with their food, a lot of limestone is ingested. The ingested material is ground with
the powerful pharyngeal mill, and processed rapidly in a digestive tract without an acidic stomach. The lack of quantitative data on the feeding ecology of these
herbivores inspired a detailed study of the Caribbean parrotfish Scarus vetula and Sparisoma viride. The study was performed at the leeward fringing reef of Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. ...

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Abstract

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