Publications

Synchronous daytime spawning of the solitary coral Fungia danai (Fungiidae) in the Chagos Archipelago, central Indian Ocean

In scleractinian corals, the synchronous release of gametes occurs predominantly between dusk and midnight, while daytime spawning is rare, recorded early morning, late afternoon or prior to sunset (Harrison and Wallace 1990). Recently, midday spawning of Pavona sp. in Thailand highlighted the need for studies to look for spawning during daylight hours (Plathong et al. 2006). During a 6 week multidisciplinary scientific expedition to the Chagos Archipelago, synchronous daytime spawning was observed in Fungia danai between 9 and 10 a.m. on 18 February 2006 (5 days after full moon) at a lagoonal reef on Salomon Atoll (5?20.2_S, 72?13.5_E). More than 100 individuals released sperm into the water column in short repeated bursts lasting for a few seconds, creating a distinct cloud along the reef between 7 and 20 m depth (Fig. 1). Spawning appeared to be a highly localized, species-specific event, and no other fungiids were observed spawning by divers on the outer reef slope or during any sub ...

Authors

Mangubhai S , Harris Alasdair , Graham Nicholas .

Year

1

DOI

10.1007/s00338-006-0173-y

ISBN-13

0

Keywords

Scleractnia (hard corals), corals, spawning, reproduction, coral reef

Link

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00338-006-0173-y