SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Oct. 24 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say tiny crabs living in South Pacific coral help to prevent the coral from dying and might provide similar services in all coral reefs.
The University of California-Santa Barbara marine researchers say the arrangement is symbiotic: the coral provides a home and protection for the crabs, while the crabs provide "housekeeping" duties for the coral, routinely removing accumulations of sediment.
The crabs, only four-tenths of an inch wide, make their home in branching corals such as Acropora or Pocillopora.
"Although we don't know much about these crabs, we do know they are ... always tasting and exploring," said Hannah Stewart, first author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at UCSB's Marine Science Institute.
Stewart said the family of crabs is common around the world.
"This relationship probably occurs all over the Pacific and is likely more ubiquitous than we know," she said. "Crabs are in corals everywhere. There are major ecological implications to this research; species of crabs that associate with corals may be more important than we realized."
The study appears in the November issue of the journal Coral Reefs and is also available online.
