Sexual reproduction of a soft coral: synchronous and brief annual spawning of sarcophyton glaucum (quoy & gaimard, 1833)
Yehuda Benayahu,Yossi Loya +1 more
TLDR
The sexual reproduction of the alcyonacean octocoral Sarcophyton glaucum was studied for a period of about four years on the coral reefs of the northern Red Sea to study the synchronous maturation of numero...Abstract:
The sexual reproduction of the alcyonacean octocoral Sarcophyton glaucum (Quoy & Gaimard, 1833) was studied for a period of about four years on the coral reefs of the northern Red Sea. S. glaucum is a dioecious species with gonads borne in the autozooids. The smallest colonies bearing testes measure 11 cm3 (6-7 years old) while females attain maturity at a much larger colony size of at least 61 cm3 (> ten years old). Sex ratio of the population is 1:1. The annual development of the sperm sacs takes 10-12 months. Oogenesis occurs every year, however egg maturation requires 22-23 months, resulting in the presence of two cohorts of oocytes in each female. The mature eggs are large with a maximal diameter of 500-750 µm. S. glaucum has a brief annual spawning period which occurs in the majority of the population during a single night (in 1980, spawning was on 9 July). The large size of the eggs is not the ultimate cause for their prolonged period of oogenesis. Nevertheless, the synchronous maturation of numero...read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Palatability and Chemical Defense of Marine Invertebrate Larvae
Niels Lindquist,Mark E. Hay +1 more
TL;DR: Results of this broad survey cast doubt on the widely accepted notion that virtually all marine larvae are suitable prey for most generalized planktivores, and suggest that unpalatable larvae often may be aposematically colored.
Journal ArticleDOI
Defense of Ascidians and Their Conspicuous Larvae: Adult vs. Larval Chemical Defenses
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that taxonomically diverse ascidians from habitats characterized by intense predation pressure produce secondary metabolites that significantly reduce predation on both adults and larvae, and suggested that this defensive chemistry may be crucial in allowing the release of large, well—provisioned larvae during daylight periods when larvae have the greatest probability of using photic cues to select physically appropriate settlement sites.
Book ChapterDOI
Biology of deep-water octocorals.
TL;DR: This chapter discusses the taxonomy, phylogeny, biogeography, ecology, and reproductive biology of deep-sea octocorals and also focuses on gorgonian octocarals because they are the predominant octocoral group in the deep sea.
Journal ArticleDOI
Sexual reproduction in octocorals
TL;DR: Differences in reproductive characteristics between the 2 taxa do not offer an obvious explanation for these differentBiogeographic patterns of reproductive biology within Octocorallia.
Journal ArticleDOI
Sexual reproduction and external brooding by the Caribbean gorgonian Briareum asbestinum
TL;DR: Reproductive effort for both males and females increased with increasing branch size and in polyps away from the tip and base of the branch, which is unique among octocorals and scleractinians.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Mass spawning in tropical reef corals
Peter Harrison,Russell C. Babcock,Gordon D. Bull,James K. Oliver,Carden C. Wallace,Bette L. Willis +5 more
TL;DR: Synchronous multispecific spawning by a total of 32 coral species occurred a few nights after late spring full moons in 1981 and 1982 at three locations on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, invalidate the generalization that most corals have internally fertilized, brooded planula larvae.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Costs of Reproduction and Their Consequences
TL;DR: This paper identifies the effects of different types of reproductive cost on the pattern of life histories, and argues that experimental tests of life history theory are not yet feasible, and that the authors must instead rely on comparative techniques.
Journal ArticleDOI
Coral community reproductive patterns: red sea versus the great barrier reef.
Y. Shlesinger,Yossi Loya +1 more
TL;DR: The high abundance of the corals studied at Eilat may be due in part to the advantages gained through not having overlapping spawning periods and settlement times.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Reproduction of the Red Sea Coral Stylophora pistillata. I. Gonads and Planulae
Baruch Rinkevich,Yossi Loya +1 more
TL;DR: A hypothesis is offered for further examination suggesting a trend of brooding versus non-brooding species in scleractinian corals: Coral species which develop gonads in their body cavities reduce the number of eggs during oogenesis, have small eggs and brood planula-larvae, while coral species which developed gonads within their mesenteries have numerous and large ova per polyp and expel their eggs into the water.
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