Marine Biology and Biotechnology Program, Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev-Eilat Campus, Beer-Sheva, 84105, Israel; Israel Oceanography and Limnological Research, National Institute of Oceanography, Tel-Shikmona, P.O. Box 8030, Haifa, 3109701, Israel; The Interuniversity Institute for Marine Science, Eilat, 88000, Israel.
Marine Biology and Biotechnology Program, Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev-Eilat Campus, Beer-Sheva, 84105, Israel; Israel Oceanography and Limnological Research, National Institute of Oceanography, Tel-Shikmona, P.O. Box 8030, Haifa, 3109701, Israel.
Mar Environ Res. 2022 Apr;176:105612. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2022.105612. Epub 2022 Mar 21.
Aggregated larval co-settlement has been documented in myriad marine invertebrate taxa, shaping adult population structures. Still, kinship settlement patterns in brooding corals have not been studied in detail, especially under scenarios of enhanced larval assemblies. Employing two sets of ex-situ experiments, planulae staining for kinship resolution and a computer random settlement simulation, we show that larval settlement of the coral Stylophora pistillata, a brooding species in the Gulf of Aqaba/Eilat, is mostly affected by the number of larval donors, and that larvae tend to aggregate (up to 50% tissue-contacts; distances <3 mm), compared to 3% predicted in a computer simulation, all without a kinship-bias. Field surveys on juvenile colonies revealed a similar clustering pattern. Although aggregated settlement inevitably carries disadvantages such as intraspecific competition, it may be bracketed in adult colonies with benefits such as enhanced fertilization and chimerism-related ecological advantages, including augmented colony size and survivorship. These improved life-history traits of brooding coral species that aggregate could be harnessed as applied ecological engineering tools in reef restoration acts.
已在无数海洋无脊椎动物类群中记录到聚集的幼虫共附生现象，从而塑造了成体种群结构。然而，在增强的幼虫集合情况下，亲代幼虫的定居模式在抚育珊瑚中尚未得到详细研究。通过两组离体实验，即用于确定亲缘关系的珊瑚虫浮游幼虫染色和亲缘关系无偏向的计算机随机定居模拟，我们表明，在亚喀巴湾/埃拉特的抚育物种石珊瑚 Stylophora pistillata 中，幼虫定居主要受幼虫供体数量的影响，并且幼虫倾向于聚集（高达 50%的组织接触；距离 <3 毫米），而计算机模拟预测的只有 3%，这一切都没有亲缘关系偏向。对幼年珊瑚丛的实地调查显示出类似的聚类模式。尽管聚集的定居不可避免地带来了种内竞争等劣势，但在成年珊瑚丛中，它可能会带来增强受精和嵌合体相关生态优势等好处，包括增加珊瑚丛的大小和存活率。这些聚集的抚育珊瑚物种的改良生活史特征可以作为珊瑚礁修复中的应用生态工程工具加以利用。
