Abstract
Sexual reproduction plays an important role in population and community structure maintenance in scleractinian corals, particularly in growth and development after larvae settlement. Despite this, only a few studies have been conducted to monitor the post-settlement growth and development of scleractinian coral larvae. Our study aimed to inform this question by collecting adult Galaxea fascicularis colonies from Weizhou Island (21°00′–21°10′ N, 109°00′–109°15′ E) and recording their early life cycle, from fertilization to recruitment, for one year ex situ. The results demonstrated that G. fascicularis could reproduce sexually when reared in a pond for 2 y. The spawning occurred in April and May, in synchrony with wild corals. Larvae showed association with zooxanthellae 9 d after spawning (4 d after settlement) and completed metamorphosis after 1 month. The mean diameter of G. fascicularis recruits was 4.74 ± 1.12 mm in the first year, which was lower than that reported in the literature for other broadcast corals. The recruits’ survival rate decreased continuously every month, with the most severe decline occurring in the second month, from 80.87% to 50.82%. By the end of the first year, the final survival rate was 5.46%, which may be attributed to their competition with algae. This study improved our understanding of the early life cycle of scleractinian corals.
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Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 42090041, 42030502 and 41666005), Science and Technology Project of Guangxi (Nos.AA17204074, AD17129063, 2018GXNSFBA050023), the BaGui Scholars Program Foundation (2014BGXZGX03), and the Basic Ability Promotion Project for Young and Middle-aged Teachers in Universities of Guangxi (No. 2019KY0034). We sincerely thank the reviewers and the editors for providing many meaningful comments.
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All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. KY and FW conceived the research, FW, MC, WH, YW and XL contributed the materials and performed the experiments. MC and FW conducted the data analyses, XZ and HS involved in species identification, KY and FW wrote the manuscript.
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Permits for coral sampling and breed were provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, and the local Department of Ocean and Fisheries. All applicable international, national and/or institutional guidelines for sampling, care, and experimental use of organisms for the study have been followed by the authors.
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Wei, F., Cui, M., Huang, W. et al. Ex situ reproduction and recruitment of scleractinian coral Galaxea fascicularis. Mar Biol 170, 30 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-023-04175-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-023-04175-7