What Type Of Animal Is A Seahorse
Habitats
All seahorses live in, well, the sea.
They are unremarkably also institute in estuaries where the water may exist quite stagnant or even experience intermittent freshwater floods. Seahorses are sparsely distributed in most populations, found at 0.06 per g2 or 1 seahorse per 16.67 grand2, for case. They do, withal, occur in higher densities at detail times and places, peculiarly in lagoons. The highest density of seahorses – up to 0.66 per m2 (one seahorse every 155 m2) – has been institute in a tidal lake in the Commonwealth of the bahamas that is isolated from the ocean. 1 A lagoon in Portugal besides had high densities of well-nigh 1.v per k2 when first studied in the early on 2002, although densities had declined by 94% by 2008.
Seahorses occupy a huge diversity of shallow h2o habitats: seagrasses, mangroves, corals, sponges, seaweeds, and shallow dips in mud and sandy bottoms.
Most species settle downwardly onto the lesser, anchored to a holdfast of an emergent plant, animal or seaweed. Some pygmy seahorses are found only in association with gorgonian corals or sea fans and volition spend their entire life on a single sea fan. In contrast, at least four species have been encountered several kilometres offshore and have been recorded at depths greater than 100 yard. The discovery of seahorses in the stomachs of open ocean predators – east.thousand. yellowfin tuna, trevally and dolphinfish – confirms that some might even occur far offshore.
Camouflage
Nearly seahorses are very camouflaged, matching their habitats closely. They change colours to blend into their background – even including matching fluorescent survey tape – and abound skin filaments to hide even better. By using their prehensile tail to grip a holdfast tightly and staying immobile, they become well-nigh invisible to the casual (and fifty-fifty the determined) seeker. Seahorses also brighten during elaborate pair bond and courtship displays but these short term colour changes serve to make the seahorses more visible. Speaking of brightening, recent work has been exploring how biofluorescence in seahorses can be used to spot them at night. 2 , iii
Migration
Some seahorse species engage in migration, moving long distances, for at least three reasons: juveniles move to adult habitats; adults move on a seasonal ground; and seahorses go rafting. With respect to rafting, seahorses from a number of species have been plant tucked into sargassum and other seaweed clumps, globe-trotting long distances. Given that such travel creates the potential for long distance dispersal, much more needs to exist learned about migrations and rafting.
- Masonjones, H., Rose, E., Elson, J., Roberts, B. and J. Curtis-Quick. 2019. Loftier density, early maturing, and morphometrically unique Hippocampus erectus population makes a Bahamian swimming a priority site for conservation. Endangered Species Research 39:35-49.
- De Brauwer, M., Hobbs, J-P.A. Ambo-Rappe, R., Jompa, J., Harvey, Eastward.South. and J.L. McIlwain. 2018. Biofluorescence every bit a survey tool for cryptic marine species. Conservation Biology 32(3): 706-715.
- Vaccani, A.C., Freret-Meurer, N.5., Bertoncini, A.A. and L.Northward. Santos. 2019. Shining in the night: First tape of bioflurescence in the seahorse Hippocampus reidi. PLoS 1 14(8): e0220561
Source: https://projectseahorse.org/saving-seahorses/about-seahorses/habitats/
Posted by: eadiebence1984.blogspot.com
0 Response to "What Type Of Animal Is A Seahorse"
Post a Comment