Main description:

This volume, the proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Coelenterate Biology, is organized as the meeting was around six topics. Because several sessions of ICCB7 constituted the 2003 North American meeting of the International Society for Reef Studies, the subject of coral reefs is strongly represented in the section on Ecology. The other themes are Neurobiology; Reproduction, Development, and Life Cycles; Pioneers in Coelenterate Biology; Cnidae; and Taxonomy and Systematics. Ctenophores, as well as representatives of all four classes of cnidarians are among the study subjects of the research reported in this volume. The theme of variability runs through the volume - be it in cnidae, morphology, behavior, neurobiology, ecology, colony form, or reproduction, variability is a major reason these animals are so interesting and challenging to study! This is a must-read resource for anyone doing research - or planning to do research - on cnidarians and ctenophores.

Contents:

Pioneers in Coelenterate Biology.- Charles McLean Fraser (1872-1946) - his contributions to hydroid research and to the development of fisheries biology and academia in British Columbia.- From birds to hydroids: Charles Cleveland Nutting (1858-1927) of the University of Iowa, USA.- The first description of nerves in a cnidarian: Louis Agassiz's account of 1850.- Neurobiology.- Biogenic amine receptors in the sea pansy: activity, molecular structure, and physiological significance.- Chemical anatomy of hydra nervous system using antibodies against hydra neuropeptides: a review.- Neuropeptides and photic behavior in Cnidaria.- Different roles of GABA and glycine in the modulation of chemosensory responses in Hydra vulgaris (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa).- Glutamatergic and GABAnergic control in the tentacle effector systems of Hydra vulgaris.- Epithelial conduction: recent findings, old questions, and where do we go from here?.- Impulse conduction in the jellyfish Aglantha digitale.- Spasm behavior and the diffuse nerve-net in Cassiopea xamachana (Scyphozoa: Coelenterata).- Mechanoreception and synaptic transmission of hydrozoan nematocytes.- Cnidarian neurobiology: what does the future hold?.- Neural pathways and innervation of cnidocytes in tentacles of sea anemones.- Dynamic tuning of hair bundle mechanoreceptors in a sea anemone during predation.- The photobiology of Hydra's periodic activity.- Photoreceptors of cubozoan jellyfish.- A mechanosensory system that controls feeding in adult Mnemiopsis.- Primary inhibition: a mechanism for sudden stoppage of metachrony in ctenophores.- Cnidae.- Nematocysts of Polypodium hydriforme, a cnidarian parasite of acipenseriform fishes.- Nematocyst composition of the cubomedusan Chiropsalmus quadrigatus changes with growth.- A review of zoanthid nematocyst types and their population structure.- Variability in nematocysts from a single individual of the sea anemone Actinodendron arboreum (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Actiniaria).- Hydroid nematophores: morphological, structural, and behavioural variety from old knowledge and new data.- Taxonomy & Systematics.- Use of X-radiographs to distinguish members of the Montastraea annularis reef-coral species complex.- Redescription of Bedotella armata from Biscay Bay, northern Spain, the type species of Bedotella Stechow, 1913 (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa, Lafoeidae), with comments on its taxonomic position.- First full description of the large physonect siphonophore Halistemma amphytridis (Lesueur & Petit, 1807).- Phylogeny and biogeography of Anthopleura in the North Atlantic Ocean.- Some implications of molecular phylogenetics for understanding biodiversity in jellyfishes, with emphasis on Scyphozoa.- On the taxonomy and presumable evolutionary pathways of planktonic larvae of Ceriantharia (Anthozoa, Cnidaria).- Cloning and sequencing of cDNA encoding glutamine synthetase from the sea anemone Aiptasia pallida.- Axial Patterning.- The dynamics of multiple mouth formation in Fungia granulosa: possible patterning mechanisms.- Evolution and dynamics of branching colonial form in marine modular cnidarians: gorgonian octocorals.- The role of polyp-stolon junctions in the redox signaling of colonial hydroids.- Variations on a theme? Polyp and medusa development in Podocoryna carnea.- The development and evolution of hydrozoan polyp and colony form.- Morphogenetic evolution of hydroid colony pattern.- Reproduction, Development, Life Cycles.- Budding, bud morphogenesis, and regeneration in Carybdea marsupialis Linnaeus, 1758 (Cnidaria: Cubozoa).- Growth and age determination of the tropical Australian cubozoan Chiropsalmus sp.- The life cycle of Chrysaora lactea Eschscholtz, 1829 (Cnidaria, Scyphozoa) with notes on the scyphistoma stage of three other species.- D-Methionine and gold chloride alleviate adverse eects of glutamate on motility of ephyrae of Aurelia aurita (Linnaeus, 1758) (Scyphozoa: Semaeostomeae).- Medusoid release and spawning of Macrorynchia philippina Kirchenpauer, 1872 (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa, Aglaopheniidae).- Gonad development and somatic growth patterns of Olindias sambaquiensis (Limnomedusae, Olindiidae).- Reproduction of the colonial hydroid Obelia geniculata (L., 1758) (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) in the White Sea.- Heterogeneous and compensatory growth in Melithaea flabellifera (Octocorallia: Melithaeidae) in Japan.- Reproduction and the unusual condition of hermaphroditism in Sarcophyton glaucum (Octocorallia, Alcyoniidae) in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.- The reproductive biology of Parazoanthus parasiticus (Hexacorallia: Zoanthidea) in Bermuda.- Coral Reefs.- Morphological and genetic variation across reef habitats in a broadcast-spawning octocoral.- Demographic aspects of the soft coral Sinularia flexibilis leading to local dominance on coral reefs.- Allorecognition and xenorecognition in reef corals: a decade of interactions.- Epidermal structure of the scleractinian coral Mycetophyllia ferox: light-induced vesicles, copious mucocytes, and sporadic tentacles.- Adaptive bleaching: a general phenomenon.- Observations of a new source of coral mortality along the Kenyan coast.- Coral mortality, recovery and reef degradation at Mexico Rocks Patch Reef Complex, Northern Belize, Central America: 1995-1997.- Synoptic water clarity assessment in the Florida Keys using diffuse attenuation coefficient estimated from Landsat imagery.- Ecology.- Distribution of sea anemones (Cnidaria, Actiniaria) in Korea analyzed by environmental clustering.- Description and ecology of Cytaeis capitata n. sp. (Hydrozoa, Cytaeididae) from Bunaken Marine Park (North Sulawesi, Indonesia).- Effects of anemonefish on giant sea anemones: expansion behavior, growth, and survival.- Predation of freshwater jellyfish on Bosmina: the consequences for population dynamics, body size, and morphology.- Associations between gelatinous zooplankton and hyperiid amphipods (Crustacea: Peracarida) in the Gulf of California.- The scyphomedusan fauna of the Japan Trench: preliminary results from a remotely-operated vehicle.- A golden age of gelata: past and future research on planktonic ctenophores and cnidarians.