EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE BASIS OF THE UNIFORM DISPERSION PATTERN OF POCILLOPORA-MEANDRINA DANA VAR NOBILIS VERRILL, 1864

Experiments show that the close proximity of a large live colony of Po cillopora meandrina Dana var. nobilis Verrill, 1864 decreases the surv ival of small colonies compared to the survival of small colonies in t he open. The close proximity of either large dead colonies or clusters of small colonies did not affect the survival rate of individual smal l colonies. The existence of this form of interaction between large an d small colonies of the same species raises the question of whether th e phenomenon occurs in more diverse and complex coral communities and whether it is contributing to the maintenance of high diversity in suc h situations by preventing the development of pure stands.