Coral mass spawning predicted by rapid seasonal rise in ocean temperature

Sally A. Keith; Jeffrey A. Maynard; Alasdair J. Edwards; James R. Guest; Andrew G. Bauman; Ruben Van Hooidonk; Scott F. Heron; Michael L. Berumen; Jessica Bouwmeester; Srisakul Piromvaragorn; Carsten Rahbek; Andrew H. Baird

doi:10.1098/rspb.2016.0011

Journal articles

Coral mass spawning predicted by rapid seasonal rise in ocean temperature

Sally A. Keith ^{1, 2} Jeffrey A. Maynard ^{3, 4, 5, 6} Alasdair J. Edwards ⁷ James R. Guest ⁸ Andrew G. Bauman ⁹ Ruben Van Hooidonk ^{10, 11} Scott F. Heron ^{12, 13} Michael L. Berumen ¹⁴ Jessica Bouwmeester ^{14, 15, 16} Srisakul Piromvaragorn ¹⁷ Carsten Rahbek ^{18, 2} Andrew H. Baird ¹

1 CoralCoE - ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies

2 Center Macroecology, Evolution and Climate

3 LabEX CORAIL - Laboratoire d'Excellence CORAIL

4 CRIOBE - Centre de recherches insulaires et observatoire de l'environnement

5 SymbioSeas

6 MARE - Marine Applied Research & Exploration

7 School of Biology

8 SECORE International

9 EMEL - Experimental Marine Ecology Laboratory

10 CIMAS - Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies

11 AOML - NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory

12 Coral Reef Watch

STAR - NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research

13 Marine Geophysical Laboratory

14 RSRC - Red Sea Research Centre

15 Department of Geology

16 Carl R. Woese Institute of Genomic Biology

17 Center of Excellence for Biodiversity of Peninsular Thailand

18 Imperial College London

Abstract : Coral spawning times have been linked to multiple environmental factors; however, to what extent these factors act as generalized cues across multiple species and large spatial scales is unknown. We used a unique dataset of coral spawning from 34 reefs in the Indian and Pacific Oceans to test if month of spawning and peak spawning month in assemblages of Acropora spp. can be predicted by sea surface temperature (SST), photosynthetically available radiation, wind speed, current speed, rainfall or sunset time. Contrary to the classic view that high mean SST initiates coral spawning, we found rapid increases in SST to be the best predictor in both cases (month of spawning: R2 = 0.73, peak: R2 = 0.62). Our findings suggest that a rapid increase in SST provides the dominant proximate cue for coral mass spawning over large geographical scales. We hypothesize that coral spawning is ultimately timed to ensure optimal fertilization success.

Keywords : phenology reproduction biogeography macroecology Acropora Indo-Pacific

Document type :

Journal articles

Domain :

Life Sciences [q-bio] / Ecology, environment

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Coral mass spawning predicted by rapid seasonal rise in ocean temperature

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