Ecological Importance
Diadema antillarum is still, in some areas, one of the most abundant, widespread, and ecologically-important shallow-water genera of tropical sea urchins. It is found in the tropical Western Atlantic Ocean, including the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and the northern and eastern coasts of South America (as far south as Brazil). It is also found in the East Atlantic at the Canary Islands. This species is ecologically important because it consumes algae that can otherwise grow to such an extent that they can smother coral reefs. They live in holes that are in the reef.
Read more about this topic: Diadema Antillarum
Famous quotes containing the words ecological and/or importance:
“Could it not be that just at the moment masculinity has brought us to the brink of nuclear destruction or ecological suicide, women are beginning to rise in response to the Mother’s call to save her planet and create instead the next stage of evolution? Can our revolution mean anything else than the reversion of social and economic control to Her representatives among Womankind, and the resumption of Her worship on the face of the Earth? Do we dare demand less?”
—Jane Alpert (b. 1947)
“More than ten million women march to work every morning side by side with the men. Steadily the importance of women is gaining not only in the routine tasks of industry but in executive responsibility. I include also the woman who stays at home as the guardian of the welfare of the family. She is a partner in the job and wages. Women constitute a part of our industrial achievement.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)