[Coral-List] Montastraea spawning

[mikhail matz]

Hi all,

Here at Looe Key we've seen one odd Montastrea faveolata releasing  
bundles on the night of 5th; the rest were not doing anything at all  
(from Aug 1 to 6). On the same night (Aug 5) Montastrea cavernosa  
spawned prodigiously starting from sunset (about 8 pm) and continuing  
well after 10 pm. We've seen lots of males, but only two females  
releasing gametes.

Funny thing: on August 6 A. palmata went again (10:30 pm). The first  
A.palmata dribble was on the night of Aug 2 and then nothing until  
Aug 6. This night it looked like most of the colonies found at the  
site (Looe Key, buoy 10) were spawning, although it commonly was only  
part of the colony spawning.

Really looking forward to the summary posting, Alina!

cheers

Misha Matz, Kim Ritchie et al
from Mote Tropical Research Station


On Aug 7, 2007, at 10:18 AM, Szmant, Alina wrote:

> Hello All:
>
> There has been a number of postings about Acropora spawning in the  
> Caribbean this past week but no listings of observations of  
> spawning by the Montastraea annularis group.  Has anyone observed  
> these taxa to spawn over the past weekend?  Any news would be  
> appreciated (location, which morphs, time of spawning, % of  
> colonies spawning).
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Alina Szmant
>
> P.S.  When I get a free minute I will post a summary of past  
> Acropora palmata spawn observations including fron years such as  
> 1996 when we had the same lunar cycle as this year.  That year we  
> had extensive spawnings of A palmata both early and late August in  
> the Florida keys.
>
> *******************************************************************
> Dr. Alina M. Szmant
> Coral Reef Research Group
> UNCW-Center for Marine Science
> 5600 Marvin K. Moss Ln
> Wilmington NC 28409
> Tel: (910)962-2362 & Fax:  (910)962-2410
> Cell:  (910)200-3913
> email:  szmanta at uncw.edu
> Web Page:  http://people.uncw.edu/szmanta
> ******************************************************************
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