Coral reproduction in Western Australia
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Marine Biology, Science Policy
- Keywords
- coral reproduction, spawning corals, brooding corals, coral reefs, Western Australia, coral larvae, coral recruitment
- Copyright
- © 2016 Gilmour et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2016. Coral reproduction in Western Australia. PeerJ PrePrints 4:e1462v3 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1462v3
Abstract
Larval production and recruitment underpin the maintenance of coral populations, but these early life history stages are vulnerable to extreme variation in physical conditions. Environmental managers aim to minimise human impacts during significant periods of larval production and recruitment on reefs, but doing so requires knowledge of the modes and timing of coral reproduction. Most corals are hermaphroditic or gonochoric, with a brooding or broadcast spawning mode of reproduction. Brooding corals are a significant component of some reefs and produce larvae over consecutive months. Broadcast spawning corals are more common and display considerable variation in their patterns of spawning among reefs. Highly synchronous spawning can occur on reefs around Australia, particularly on the Great Barrier Reef. On Australia’s remote north-west coast there have been fewer studies of coral reproduction. The recent industrial expansion into these regions has facilitated research, but the associated data are often contained within confidential reports. Here we combine information in this grey-literature with that available publicly to update our knowledge of coral reproduction in WA, for tens of thousands of corals and hundreds of species from over a dozen reefs spanning 20 degrees of latitude. We identified broad patterns in coral reproduction, but more detailed insights were hindered by biased sampling; most studies focused on species of Acropora sampled over a few months at several reefs. Within the existing data, there was a latitudinal gradient in spawning activity among seasons, with mass spawning during autumn occurring on all reefs (but the temperate south-west). Participation in a smaller, multi-specific spawning during spring decreased from approximately one quarter of corals on the Kimberley Oceanic reefs to little participation at Ningaloo. Within these seasons, spawning was concentrated in March and/or April, and October and/or November, depending on the timing of the full moon. The timing of the full moon determined whether spawning was split over two months, which was common on tropical reefs. There were few data available for non-Acropora corals, which may have different patterns of reproduction. For example, the massive Porites seemed to spawn through spring to autumn on Kimberley Oceanic reefs and during summer in the Pilbara region, where other common corals (e.g. Turbinaria & Pavona) also displayed different patterns of reproduction to the Acropora. The brooding corals (Isopora & Seriatopora) on Kimberley Oceanic reefs appeared to planulate during many months, possibly with peaks from spring to autumn; a similar pattern is likely on other WA reefs. Gaps in knowledge were also due to the difficulty in identifying species and issues with methodology. We briefly discuss some of these issues and suggest an approach to quantifying variation in reproductive output throughout a year.
Author Comment
This data synthesis updates our current knowledge of coral reproduction on Western Australian reefs, based on publicly available data and that provided in confidential reports to government and industry. Confidential reports were provided to the authors in support of the Western Australian Marine Science Institute (WAMSI). We are very grateful for the contribution of data by industry and their private consultants. This version 3 of the submission makes minor editorial changes to the text and no changes to the data.
Supplemental Information
SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 1
SOURCES OF CORAL REPRODUCTIVE DATA FOR REGIONS ACROSS WESTERN AUSTRALIA
SUPPLEMENTARY TEXT 1
REGIONAL VARIATION IN ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS ON WESTERN AUSTRALIAN REEFS
SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 2
REGIONAL VARIATION IN SPAWNING FOR CORAL SPECIES ON WESTERN AUSTRALIAN REEFS
SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 4
REPRODUCTIVE OUTPUT AT A HYPOTHETICAL OCEANIC AND INSHORE REEF OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA