Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Emeritus Professor Alasdair Edwards, Dr James Guest
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.Early research into coral reproductive biology suggested that spawning synchrony was driven by variations in the amplitude of environmental variables that are correlated with latitude, with synchrony predicted to break down at lower latitudes. More recent research has revealed that synchronous spawning, both within and among species, is a feature of all speciose coral assemblages, including equatorial reefs. Nonetheless, considerable variation in reproductive synchrony exists among locations and the hypothesis that the extent of spawning synchrony is correlated with latitude has not been formally tested on a large scale. Here, we use data from 90 sites throughout the Indo-Pacific and a quantitative index of reproductive synchrony applied at a monthly scale to demonstrate that, despite considerable spatial and temporal variation, there is no correlation between latitude and reproductive synchrony. Considering the critical role that successful reproduction plays in the persistence and recovery of coral reefs, research is urgently needed to understand the drivers underpinning variation in reproductive synchrony.
Author(s): Bouwmeester J, Edwards AJ, Guest JR, Bauman AG, Berumen ML, Baird AH
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Coral Reefs
Year: 2021
Volume: 40
Pages: 1411-1418
Online publication date: 15/06/2021
Acceptance date: 31/05/2021
Date deposited: 10/08/2021
ISSN (print): 0722-4028
ISSN (electronic): 1432-0975
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-021-02129-3
DOI: 10.1007/s00338-021-02129-3
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
