Journal ArticleDOI
Effects of Light Dynamics on Coral Spawning Synchrony
Charles A. Boch,Bharath Ananthasubramaniam,Alison M. Sweeney,Francis J. Doyle,Daniel E. Morse +4 more
TLDR
It is concluded that spawning synchrony on a particular lunar night and specific time of night is a threshold response to differential periods of darkness after twilight that is primarily influenced by lunar photoperiod and secondarily by discrete optical components of early nocturnal illumination.Abstract:
Synchrony of spawning in many hermatypic corals, typically a few nights after the full moon, is putatively dependent on solar and lunar light cycles in conjunction with other possible cues such as tides and temperature. We analyze here the contributions of separate components of light dynamics, because the effects of twilight and lunar skylight on coral spawning synchrony have previously been conflated and the alternative hypothesis that these components have differential contributions as proximate cues has not been tested. Moonlight-dependent changes in spectra during twilight, rates of decreasing twilight intensities, and changes in lunar photoperiod were experimentally decoupled using programmed light-emitting diodes and compared for their separate effects on spawning synchrony in Acropora humilis. Effects on synchrony under the control of synthetic lunar cues were greatest in response to changes in lunar photoperiod; changes in light intensities and spectra had lesser influence. No significant differe...read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Effects of sediments on the reproductive cycle of corals
TL;DR: Possible cause-effect pathways whereby light reduction, elevated suspended sediments and sediment deposition could affect the reproductive cycle and early life histories of corals are examined.
Journal ArticleDOI
Inducing broadcast coral spawning ex situ: Closed system mesocosm design and husbandry protocol.
Jamie Craggs,Jamie Craggs,James R. Guest,Michelle Davis,Jeremy Simmons,Ehsan Dashti,Michael Sweet +6 more
TL;DR: A closed system mesocosm aquarium design that utilizes microprocessor technology to accurately replicate environmental conditions, including photoperiod, seasonal insolation, lunar cycles, and seasonal temperature from Singapore and the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, were successful in inducing broadcast coral spawning in a fully closed artificial ex situ environment.
Journal ArticleDOI
Circadian clocks in symbiotic corals: the duet between Symbiodinium algae and their coral host.
TL;DR: Evidence is provided of why the chronobiology of corals is fundamental and extremely important for explaining the biology, physiology, and metabolism of coral reefs, and of why symbiotic corals are an interesting model with which to study the complexities and evolution of the metazoan circadian clock.
Journal ArticleDOI
The genetics of colony form and function in Caribbean Acropora corals.
TL;DR: Genes involved in growth of mature Acropora colonies include the classical signaling pathways associated with development of cnidarian larvae and polyps as well as morphological determination in higher metazoans.
Journal ArticleDOI
Lunar Phase Modulates Circadian Gene Expression Cycles in the Broadcast Spawning Coral Acropora millepora
TL;DR: Daily changes in moonlight that occur over the lunar cycle are essential for maintaining normal lunar periodicity of clock gene transcription, and this may play a role in regulating spawn timing, and data show that low levels of light pollution may have an impact on coral biological clocks.
References
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Book
Randomization, Bootstrap and Monte Carlo Methods in Biology
TL;DR: The idea of a randomization test has been explored in the context of data analysis for a long time as mentioned in this paper, and it has been applied in a variety of applications in biology, such as single species ecology and community ecology.
Journal ArticleDOI
Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences
Journal ArticleDOI
Randomization, Bootstrap and Monte Carlo Methods in Biology.
A. W. Kemp,Bryan F. J. Manly +1 more
Book
Logistic Regression: A Primer
TL;DR: The Logic of Logistic Regression Interpreting Logistic regression Coefficients Estimation and Model Fit Probit Analysis as mentioned in this paper is a well-known approach to model fit probability analysis.
Journal ArticleDOI
Synchronous spawnings of 105 scleractinian coral species on the Great Barrier Reef
Russell C. Babcock,Gordon D. Bull,Peter Harrison,Andrew Heyward,Jamie Oliver,Carden C. Wallace,Bette L. Willis +6 more
TL;DR: Multispecific synchronous spawning, or “mass spawning”, of scleractinian and some alcyonacean corals represents a phenomenon which is, so far, unique in both marine and terrestrial communities.