Document Type
Article
Source of Publication
Scientific Reports
Publication Date
12-15-2014
Abstract
Despite a wealth of information on sexual reproduction in scleractinian corals, there are regional gaps in reproductive records. In the Gulf of the Oman in the Arabian Sea, reproductive timing was assessed in four common species of broadcast spawning corals using field surveys of gamete maturity and aquarium observations of spawning activity. The appearance of mature gametes within the same month for Acropora downingi, A. hemprichii, Cyphastrea microphthalma and Platygyra daedalea (≥ 75% of colonies, n = 848) indicated a synchronous and multi-specific spawning season. Based on gamete disappearance and direct observations, spawning predominantly occurred during April in 2013 (75- 100% of colonies) and May in 2014 (77-94% of colonies). The difference in spawning months between survey years was most likely explained by sea temperature and the timing of lunar cycles during late-stage gametogenesis. These reproductive records are consistent with a latitudinal gradient in peak broadcast spawning activity at reefs in the northwestern Indian Ocean which occurs early in the year at low latitudes (January to March) and progressively later in the year at mid (March to May) and high (June to September) latitudes.
DOI Link
ISSN
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Volume
4
First Page
7484
Last Page
7484
Disciplines
Life Sciences
Keywords
Acropora, coral, field study, gamete, gametogenesis, Indian Ocean, information processing, latitude, major clinical study, maturity, Oman, season, spawning, species, animal, apoptosis, Bagg albino mouse, Breast Neoplasms, cell adhesion, cell cycle, cell motion, cell proliferation, drug screening, enzyme immunoassay, enzymology, female, flow cytometry, fluorescent antibody technique, genetics, human, mouse, nude mouse, pathology, real time polymerase chain reaction, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, tumor cell culture, Western blotting, messenger RNA, Animals, Apoptosis, Blotting, Western, Breast Neoplasms, Cell Adhesion, Cell Cycle, Cell Movement, Cell Proliferation, Female, Flow Cytometry, Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Humans, Immunoenzyme Techniques, Mice, Mice, Inbred BALB C, Mice, Nude, Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction, Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction, RNA, Messenger, Tumor Cells, Cultured, Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays
Scopus ID
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Howells, E. J.; Abrego, D.; Vaughan, G. O.; and Burt, J. A., "Coral spawning in the Gulf of Oman and relationship to latitudinal variation in spawning season in the northwest Indian Ocean" (2014). All Works. 1089.
https://zuscholars.zu.ac.ae/works/1089
Indexed in Scopus
yes
Open Access
yes
Open Access Type
Gold: This publication is openly available in an open access journal/series