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

Szmant, Alina szmanta at uncw.edu
Sat Jul 30 17:28:41 EDT 2011


Acropora palmata has been observed to spawn in mid-late July in the past.  Iliana Baums saw some spawning in Key Largo in the early 2000s, and I had a message from a Mexican graduate student in the mid 1990s about a large spawn in the Veracruz area mid July.  Major spawning in late July (30) happened in Key Largo in 1996 followed by a second major spawning in late August/early Sept.  I am sure that they have spawned in July other years, we just haven't been out there to observe.


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Dr. Alina M. Szmant
Professor of Marine Biology
Coral Reef Research Program, Center for Marine Science
University of North Carolina Wilmington
5600 Marvin K. Moss Lane
Wilmington NC 28409
Tel:  (910)962-2362; fax: (910)962-2410;  cell:  (910)200-3913
http://people.uncw.edu/szmanta
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________________________________________
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov [coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml..noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Dave Vaughan [dvaughan at mote.org]
Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 2:35 PM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: [Coral-List] A.palmata spawned in July in Florida Keys

     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

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