TY - JOUR
T1 - High reproductive synchrony of Acropora (Anthozoa: Scleractinia) in the Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea
AU - Bouwmeester, Jessica
AU - Berumen, Michael L.
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): URF/1/1389-01-01, CCF/1/1973-01-01
Acknowledgements: Funding was provided by KAUST grants (URF/1/1389-01-01 and CCF/1/1973-01-01) as well as baseline research funds to MLB.
PY - 2015/1/5
Y1 - 2015/1/5
N2 - Coral spawning in the northern Gulf of Aqaba has been reported to be asynchronous, making it almost unique when compared to other regions in the world. Here, we document the reproductive condition of Acropora corals in early June 2014 in Dahab, in the Gulf of Aqaba, 125 km south of previous studies conducted in Eilat, Israel. Seventy-eight percent of Acropora colonies from 14 species had mature eggs, indicating that most colonies will spawn on or around the June full moon, with a very high probability of multi-species synchronous spawning. Given the proximity to Eilat, we predict that a comparable sampling protocol would detect similar levels of reproductive synchrony throughout the Gulf of Aqaba consistent with the hypothesis that high levels of spawning synchrony are a feature of all speciose coral assemblages.
AB - Coral spawning in the northern Gulf of Aqaba has been reported to be asynchronous, making it almost unique when compared to other regions in the world. Here, we document the reproductive condition of Acropora corals in early June 2014 in Dahab, in the Gulf of Aqaba, 125 km south of previous studies conducted in Eilat, Israel. Seventy-eight percent of Acropora colonies from 14 species had mature eggs, indicating that most colonies will spawn on or around the June full moon, with a very high probability of multi-species synchronous spawning. Given the proximity to Eilat, we predict that a comparable sampling protocol would detect similar levels of reproductive synchrony throughout the Gulf of Aqaba consistent with the hypothesis that high levels of spawning synchrony are a feature of all speciose coral assemblages.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/338169
UR - http://f1000research.com/articles/4-2/v1
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84923658614&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.12688/f1000research.6004.1
DO - 10.12688/f1000research.6004.1
M3 - Article
C2 - 25653848
SN - 2046-1402
VL - 4
SP - 2
JO - F1000Research
JF - F1000Research
ER -