Coloniality, Carbon Allocation, and Inducible Defenses in a Modular Oraganism

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9408228 Harvell Plants, and colonial animals such as corals and bryozoans, are termed modular organisms because they are constructed of iterated units. Although it is understood how materials are transported among the units of plants, this process is poorly known in colonial animals, where the transport moves resources among units that show division of labor between feeding, reproduction and defense. This study examines whether the amounts and rates at which materials are moved among the units constrain performance. In the marine bryozoan Membranipora membranacea, defensive units are induced by the proximity of predators and competitors. The construction of defensive units slows growth and this research will investigate whether construction of the defensive units also changes transport of a radioisotpoic marker in the colony. Although costs of defense are widely cited as a limitation on the types of defenses organisms deploy, in no organism has the mechanism underlying the cost been demonstrated. ***