Research in coral sexual reproduction?

[morepunkthanewe]

I was wondering if someone could perhaps enlighten me to any universities or research instituitions that are focusing, or have the expertise to study sexual reproduction in corals, specifically in closed systems, where I could obtain my master's degree? My experience thus far in Indonesia working to establish guidelines and a standard for MAC certification of aquacultured corals has demonstrated the advantages and shortcomings of lagoon-based coral farming on a commercial scale. I am not convinced that the industry is going to be seeing many genera of asexually-cultured LPS corals widely available any time in the near future. CITES restrictions in the EU for many of these species highlights the heightening awareness of governing bodies about the potential for their overcollection. It also demonstrates an enthusiastic market for cultured specimens. I think that unravelling the secrets to the sexual reprodcution in corals is imperative to science and possibly to the future of our hobby.

My experiences witnessing and working with collectors and exporters here in Indonesia have got me turned off to the idea of making a living in the wild marinelife trade over the long term. I think that my experience, enthusiasm, and intelligence would be better spent conducting research that can all at once benefit science, rehabilitation/transplantation, and ornamental aquaculture. I think I make a better scientist than businessman. Unfortunately, it seems that coral reproduction is a neglected or overlooked aspect of aquaculture studies. But then again, all the easier to make pioneering contributions.

Any help that you can provide, links to papers, etc, would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Colin

 

[StevenPro]

I know Lee Goldman in Guam and Dirk Petersen in the Netherlands are both working on sexual reproduction in corals.

 

[clarionreef]

"My experiences witnessing and working with collectors and exporters here in Indonesia have got me turned off to the idea of making a living in the wild marinelife trade over the long term"

That was quick...
Steve

 

[gdw]

I was wondering if someone could perhaps enlighten me to any universities or research instituitions that are focusing, or have the expertise to study sexual reproduction in corals, specifically in closed systems, where I could obtain my master's degree? ...

While I am sure that there are many more, these might be good places to start:

University North Carolina Wilmington
http://www.uncw.edu/bio/grad-ms.html

School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST)
University of Hawaii
http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/soest_web/soest.school.htm

... Unfortunately, it seems that coral reproduction is a neglected or overlooked aspect of aquaculture studies. But then again, all the easier to make pioneering contributions. ...

Hmmm ... sorry ... but no (no offense). If you want to be in on the first wave of cutting-edge exploration in this realm, you need to set your WayBack machine to the mid-1950s (and arguably much farther back). Sexual reproduction of anthozoans has been the focus of a variety of very bright people for decades ... many decades. Happily, many of the most important research pathways are beginning to converge for the first time.

Sexual propagation is the only economically viable strategy for sustainable harvesting of scleractinians. It is the only strategy which has the potential to address harvestation, scale, and export issues simultaneously ... JMO.

But back to the research ...

Dr. Alina Szmant and her merry band have been working with sexual reproduction of corals in Puerto Rico as recently as ... now. Here's her staff bio page at UNCW:
http://www.uncw.edu/bio/faculty_szmant.htm

One of her "merry band" is Jake Adams, whose "Water flow is more important for corals, Part III" is a feature article in this month's Advanced Aquarist. His email is (... well, was 2 months ago ...):
[email protected] .

Another "group" engaged in coral sexual reproduction investigations is called SECORE. Their link is http://www.secore.org/ ... but it appears to be currently broken. You can read more about it in Eric Borneman's forum on MD:
http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic43517-9-1.aspx

There are MANY more out there ... with the full mix of academic, philosophical, and economic motivations. I would encourage you to invest some time in a little cyber data-ming.



Apologies for intruding ... back to lurking ... 8O :twisted:


JMO ... HTH
8)

 

[spawner]

LPS, SPS, or Soft Corals?

Local? or Exotic Species?

 

[dizzy]

Colin since the timing of the coral spawn can be predicted it seem like planula larvae could be collected and moved to growout areas.
Mitch

http://www.guam.net/pub/live_spawn/info.html
Coral Spawning

Robert H. Richmond, UOG Marine Lab
Summer means different things to different groups. For students and teachers, its vacation time, for construction workers, hot and sweaty conditions, for the corals of Micronesia, its time to spawn and produce the larvae that will seed reefs for the years to come... Corals are animals, and like all other life forms, must reproduce to maintain or increase their numbers. Some coral colonies die each year from both natural and man-made causes, including typhoons, crown-of-thorns starfish, coastal runoff, sedimentation, anchor damage, and sewage impact. Unless these corals are replaced through successful reproduction followed by settlement and metamorphosis of the coral seed called planula larvae, the reef goes into decline, and the important functions and benefits of the coral reef are lost.

The majority of Micronesia's nearly 300 species of coral are simultaneous hermaphrodites, which means they are both male and female, containing both eggs and sperm, at the same time. In the recesses of the coral polyps, eggs begin to develop as early as January each year, and along with the sperm, are fully ripe by June or July. Over the past several years, our research group at the University of Guam Marine Lab has found that many of the corals of Micronesia spawn (release their eggs and sperm) 7 - 10 days after the July full moon.

On the night of spawning, soon after sundown, the flower-like polyps which make up the living coral colony begin to expand, as sperm packets are moved up from a space within the underlying coral skeleton. Soon, bright orange or red eggs are brought up and "glued" to the individual sperm bundles, until the sperm is completely surrounded. This is a nice trick, as these clusters of 9 - 190 eggs around a central sperm core, float to the surface due to the high fat content of the eggs. In this way, eggs and sperm from different colonies have a chance to intermingle at the ocean's surface, and if the combination is right, fertilization will take place.

Our research has shown coral eggs can distinguish among the different kinds of sperm present during the mass-spawning. They usually reject sperm which originate from their own parent colony but readily accept sperm from a different individual of the same species. We have also been able to get sperm from one species to fertilize eggs of related but different species. This is called hybridization, and such crosses may be one reason for the wide variety of coral forms on the reef.

On the pollution front, we've found that freshwater runoff alone can have disastrous effects on coral fertilization rates, with a 15% drop in seawater salinity causing nearly a 90% drop in coral fertilization rate. Add red soil to the runoff, and the situation gets worse. We are also beginning to test the effects of pesticides on coral reproduction, as we need to know if these chemicals will be a problem, based on our present knowledge that chemical cues are very important to the success of corals during their once-a-year breeding period.

One of the most exciting aspects of this research is our experiments with the mass-culture of coral larvae for the aquarium trade, monitoring and tests of reseeding damaged reefs. We are able to raise larvae by the thousands, and use the cultivated corals for testing the effects of pollutants and in reseeding trials.

Every year, we are learning more about corals, how they live, and how they replenish their numbers. This knowledge will help in preserving these precious resources, as well as allow us to improve the opportunities for recovery when damage occurs. However, we can already say, beyond any doubt, that prevention is the key. No matter how successful reseeding is, we cannot speed up the growth rate of corals. Large coral colonies cannot be replaced in less than the several hundred years it took them to attain that size. Coral reefs are economically, culturally and aesthetically important to the Islands of Micronesia. Through a better understanding of how they work, we can do a better job of protecting them from unnecessary damage.

 

[WayneSallee]

It seems to me that for most corals, fragmentation would be the best way for reproduction, as this caryies identical production of the color morphs of corals. And sexual reproduction would just be used for generating other color morphs.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets
[email protected]

 

[Rascal]

Nova university is in your neck of the woods if you want to stay in Florida. I have some contacts there if you would like to talk to some coral reproduction people. One of my old store managers is working on her PhD dissertation there.

 

[Anonymous]

[email protected]

 

[Anonymous]

www.SECORE.org