The reproductive ecology of deep-water scleractinian corals

Abstract

Deep water corals and coral reefs have gained considerable attention recently, both in the public and scientific domain.  These corals inhabit depths from relatively shallow at a few tens of metres, to over 6000m, and most have cosmopolitan distributions.  These corals can form complex frameworks that attract a variety of invertebrate and vertebrate fauna.  Many commercially important species have been observed using these reefs for protection, procreation and feeding, and so have been the target of recent demersal trawling.

This thesis considers the reproduction of eleven species of deep-water scleractinian from the NE Atlantic and Antarctica.  Shallow-water reef and solitary coral reproduction has been extensively reported, but basic ecological information on deep-water species is lacking.  The gametogenesis and reproductive biology of these eleven species was explored by dissection, histological techniques, and scanning electron microscopy.

Reproductive data obtained indicate that, in common with shallow water scleractinia, there is no strict pattern to their reproductive habit and a variety of modes were observed.  The species examined in this study ranged from hermaphroditic species that spawn gametes (Caryophyllia ambrosia, C. seguenzae, C. cornuformis);  gonochoric species that spawn gametes seasonally (Lophelia pertusa, Madrepora oculata, Flabellum angulare);  gonochoric species that spawn quasi-continuously (Fungiacyathus marenzelleri, Flabellum alabastrum) and brooding species (Flabellum thouarsii, F. curvatum, F. impensum).  Oocyte size appears to increase as depth increases, and fecundity reduces with depth.  The population dynamics of C. seguenzae was also examined.  There appears to be a large juvenile component to this species population, with stability shown through the three years examined.

More information

Identifiers

Catalogue record

Export record

ASCII CitationAtomBibTeXData Cite XMLDublin CoreDublin CoreEP3 XMLEndNoteHTML CitationHTML CitationHTML ListJSONMETSMODSMPEG-21 DIDLOpenURL ContextObjectOpenURL ContextObject in SpanRDF+N-TriplesRDF+N3RDF+XMLRIOXX2 XMLReferReference ManagerSimple Metadata