[Coral-List] A.palmata spawned in July in Florida Keys

[Dave Vaughan]

     Just a note that /A. palmata/ (i.e. Elkhorn coral) colonies were 
observed to spawn Tuesday night July 19th.(Looe Key- Florida Keys 
National Marine Sanctuary, Special Protected Area), at about 2 hours 
after sunset.  This is one month earlier than usual (3-4 days after full 
moon in August). Could this be a new trend with warmer seawater 
temperatures?  It seams that corals may have spawned earlier these past 
two years as well. It seams apparent that some corals think its August 
or September.
     Are there any other early spawning observations taking place?

Dave Vaughan,
Coral Reef Research Center Director
Mote Tropical Research Lab
Summerland Key, Florida,
DVaughan at Mote.org