Inter- and intraspecific variation in gorgonian colony morphology: quantifying branching patterns in arborescent animals

Geomorphological methods for quantifying branching networks are used to describe inter- and intra-specific differences in branching patterns among two species of arborescent Caribbean gorgonian, Plexaura homomalla, P. flexuosa, and a third, undescribed plexaurid from the San Blas Islands, Panama. There were significant differences among species for first, second and third order branch lengths, and for tributary to source ratios for first and second order branches. Extrapolations from the branching parameters successfully predicted differences in the branch structure of naturally generated colony fragments. Within P. homomalla, significant differences with depth in the lengths and tributary to source ratios of first, second, and third order branches provide a measure of the greater bushiness of shallow water colonies. These measures can be used to quantify morphological differences in both ecological and systematic analyses. Data on the branching characters of these three gorgonian species demonstrate that gross colony form can be studied as a quantifiable component of phenotype and that gorgonians display both species level and ecophenotypic variation in colony form.