Keith Sally A, Maynard Jeffrey A, Edwards Alasdair J, Guest James R, Bauman Andrew G, van Hooidonk Ruben, Heron Scott F, Berumen Michael L, Bouwmeester Jessica, Piromvaragorn Srisakul, Rahbek Carsten, Baird Andrew H
Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen 2100, Denmark ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia
SymbioSeas and the Marine Applied Research Center, Wilmington, NC 28411, USA Laboratoire d'Excellence «CORAIL» USR 3278 CNRS - EPHE, CRIOBE, Papetoai, Moorea, French Polynesia.
Proc Biol Sci. 2016 May 11;283(1830). doi: 10.1098/rspb.2016.0011.
Coral spawning times have been linked to multiple environmental factors; however, to what extent these factors act as generalized cues across multiple species and large spatial scales is unknown. We used a unique dataset of coral spawning from 34 reefs in the Indian and Pacific Oceans to test if month of spawning and peak spawning month in assemblages of Acropora spp. can be predicted by sea surface temperature (SST), photosynthetically available radiation, wind speed, current speed, rainfall or sunset time. Contrary to the classic view that high mean SST initiates coral spawning, we found rapid increases in SST to be the best predictor in both cases (month of spawning: R(2) = 0.73, peak: R(2) = 0.62). Our findings suggest that a rapid increase in SST provides the dominant proximate cue for coral mass spawning over large geographical scales. We hypothesize that coral spawning is ultimately timed to ensure optimal fertilization success.
珊瑚产卵时间与多种环境因素有关；然而，这些因素在多大程度上作为跨多个物种和大空间尺度的通用线索尚不清楚。我们使用了来自印度洋和太平洋34个珊瑚礁的独特珊瑚产卵数据集，以测试鹿角珊瑚属组合的产卵月份和产卵高峰月份是否可以通过海表温度（SST）、光合有效辐射、风速、流速、降雨量或日落时间来预测。与高平均海表温度引发珊瑚产卵的经典观点相反，我们发现在这两种情况下，海表温度的快速升高都是最佳预测指标（产卵月份：R(2) = 0.73，高峰：R(2) = 0.62）。我们的研究结果表明，海表温度的快速升高为大地理尺度上的珊瑚大规模产卵提供了主要的近因线索。我们假设珊瑚产卵最终是为了确保最佳的受精成功率而定时的。
