Fig. 2
From: Fish predation on corals promotes the dispersal of coral symbionts
Feces of obligate corallivores (coral-eating animals) and some facultative corallivores contain live Symbiodiniaceae cells at densities several orders of magnitude higher than the feces of grazer/detritivores, sediment or water samples. Large points indicate the mean live (black) or dead (blue) Symbiodiniaceae cell density of a given species or sample type; vertical lines depict standard errors of the mean (SE). Each small point indicates cell densities quantified from a fecal sample collected from the hind gut of an individual fish (n = 76 total) or from an individual sediment or water sample (n = 24 total). Included samples (and sample sizes) for each sample category are as follows: Obligate corallivores (dark shading): Amanses scopas, AMSC (7); Chaetodon lunulatus, CHLU (8); Chaetodon ornatissimus, CHOR (14); Chaetodon reticulatus, CHRE (11). Facultative corallivores (intermediate shading): Chaetodon pelewensis, CHPE (8); Chaetodon citrinellus, CHCI (6); and Chlorurus spilurus CHSP (8). Grazer/Detritivores (light shading): Ctenochaetus flavicauda, CTFL (8); and Ctenochaetus striatus, CTST (6). Sediment and water (no shading): Sediment, SED (12); Water, WAT (12). Significant differences are listed in Table S2. For data used, see Additional file 2