Primnoa

Primnoa
Temporal range: Early Paleocene–Recent
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Octocorallia
Order: Alcyonacea
Family: Primnoidae
Genus: Primnoa
Lamouroux, 1812
Species

Primnoa (Lamororux, 1812) also known as red tree coral, is a genus of soft corals and the type genus of the family Primnoidae (Milne Edwards, 1857).[1] They are sessile, benthic cnidarians that can be found in the North Pacific, North Atlantic, and Subantarctic South Pacific,[2] and its members often play a vital ecological role as keystone species[3] within their environment as a habitat and refuge for the megafauna that also inhabit those regions.[4] This, in combination with their slow growth, makes the increasing disturbance to their habitats caused by fishing activities particularly impactful and difficult to recover from.[5]

  1. ^ "WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species - Primnoa Lamouroux, 1812". marinespecies.org. Retrieved 2018-03-30.
  2. ^ Cairns SD (2011). "A Revision of the Primnoidae (Octocorallia: Alcyonacea) from the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea". Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology (634): 1–55. doi:10.5479/si.00810282.634. ISSN 0081-0282.
  3. ^ Stone RP, Masuda MM, Karinen JF (2015-03-01). "Assessing the ecological importance of red tree coral thickets in the eastern Gulf of Alaska". ICES Journal of Marine Science. 72 (3): 900–915. doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsu190. ISSN 1054-3139.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Krieger_2002 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Stone RP, Shotwell SK (2007). State of Deep Coral Ecosystems in the Alaska Region: Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea and the Aleutian Islands. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service. pp. 65–108. OCLC 191825930.