Sea Cucumbers: The Janitors of the Sea | Cody Clements

Coral reefs are in dramatic global decline, with outbreaks of coral diseases playing a significant and increasingly frequent role in recent decades. This is especially true for Acroporid corals that represent ~25% of all Pacific coral species, were once dominant in the Caribbean but are now endangered, and that generate much of the topographic complexity on which many other species depend.
Coral diseases commonly appear sediment-associated and could be exacerbated by the overharvest of sediment-feeding detritivores. Our recent findings from French Polynesia and Palmyra Atoll suggests that sea cucumbers, which have been overharvested for decades, strongly suppress disease among Acropora corals directly contacting reef sediments.
Sea cucumbers may historically have played a key role suppressing pathogenic microbes, and their overharvest during the past 200+ years may facilitate infectious diseases that have decimated coral reefs. Restoring the essential cleaning services of these once-abundant “janitors of the sea” may help reduce coral losses to disease in a changing ocean.
Cody Clements is currently a Research Scientist at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, USA, and has spent over a decade conducting research in French Polynesia, Fiji, and other locales throughout the Pacific. His research interests focus on understanding how coral reef ecosystems are structured and function in a rapidly changing ocean, as well as integrating these insights into conservation strategies that can promote ecosystem health and the services they provide for coastal communities.
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[@katiaplantscientist]

Thanks for sharing!

[@Lena_Hansen_Jonsson]

Thank you for a lovely video! We don't have sea cucumbers in the Baltic Sea, but after watching the presentation and listening to you guys talk you made me wonder what organisms clean up detritus here.

[@LinneanSociety]

Thank you very much for watching!