[Coral-List] Origin of corals and long-distance larval dispersal (Coral-List Digest, Vol 148, Issue 13)

Wed Dec 16 19:03:19 UTC 2020

Colleagues,

Figuring out the problem of relatively short coral larval settling times limiting large-scale dispersal ("The life times of coral eggs/sperm drifting across the Pacific are much shorter than the time it takes to get there") that is necessary to define biogeographic patterns across the Pacific Ocean was figured out a third of a century ago by a great scientist who took some basic observations and crossed disciplines to prove how it's done....as Paul would have probably said, "they're just lazing around, riding rafts" :^)

See:
Jokiel, P.L. (1984) "Long distance dispersal of reef corals by rafting" Coral Reefs, v. 3, p. 113-116.
Jokiel, P.L. (1989) "Rafting of reef corals and other organisms at Kwajalein Atoll" Marine Biology, v. 101, p. 483–493.
Jokiel, P.L. (1990) "Transport of reef corals into the Great Barrier Reef" Nature, v. 347, p. 665–667.
Jokiel, P.L. (1990) "Long distance dispersal by rafting: Re-emergence of an old hypothesis" Endeavour, v. 14(2), p. 66-73.

This reminds me of the discussion of a few moons ago on Coral List regarding the new paper on the formation of atolls....seems we lose track of - if not just never learned - what has already been done.

Curt

---------------------------------------------------
Curt D. Storlazzi, Ph.D.

U.S. Geological Survey
Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
2885 Mission Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

https://www.usgs.gov/staff-profiles/curt-d-storlazzi

________________________________

Message: 5
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2020 16:27:31 -0500
From: Melbourne Briscoe <mel at briscoe.com>
To: Douglas Fenner <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>
Cc: Coral-List <Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Origin of Corals?
Message-ID:
        <CAB9+t_Cm1d6gK9Hj4xsAG5LibVEnJRWgxbM3o+49C5t+Vv4xjg at mail.gmail.com>
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Thanks for this, Doug. I guess no one else wants to weigh in! It also seems
like no one wants to apply a little critical thinking to some of those
dozen theories. For example, your last paragraph mentions a "vortex
theory." If it has been assessed, and discarded, I'm not surprised. The
life times of coral eggs/sperm drifting across the Pacific are much shorter
than the time it takes to get there. I can only see the abstract, but the
methodology is not compelling.
- Mel

On Sat, Dec 12, 2020 at 4:39 PM Douglas Fenner <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>
wrote:

> There are about a dozen theories for the marine biogeographic pattern with
> the center of diversity in the Coral Triangle.  I'm not up on the current
> state of this, so I'll let others speak to it and will be interested in
> what they say.  However, it just so happens that Science just published an
> article that appears to me to be relevant, even though it is about birds
> and not corals.
>
> Diversity hotspots: coldspots of speciation?
> https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fscience.sciencemag.org%2Fcontent%2F370%2F6522%2F1268&data=04%7C01%7Ccstorlazzi%40usgs.gov%7Cde3be98e9fc84271030008d8a1ee4495%7C0693b5ba4b184d7b9341f32f400a5494%7C0%7C0%7C637437392060524917%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=sUAl3TF7aAckTPDowNiuX4C%2BUTwieU1P8hns1HtWY0Y%3D&reserved=0
> <https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fscience.sciencemag.org%2Fcontent%2F370%2F6522%2F1268%3Futm_campaign%3Dtoc_sci-mag_2020-12-10%26et_rid%3D17045989%26et_cid%3D3593354&data=04%7C01%7Ccstorlazzi%40usgs.gov%7Cde3be98e9fc84271030008d8a1ee4495%7C0693b5ba4b184d7b9341f32f400a5494%7C0%7C0%7C637437392060524917%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=6PJzgh3Yqs2fwMTUU1LcQ0tbsZdcyyd9ovcrOD1ETQY%3D&reserved=0>
>
> The evolution of a tropical biodiversity hotspot
> https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fscience.sciencemag.org%2Fcontent%2F370%2F6522%2F1343&data=04%7C01%7Ccstorlazzi%40usgs.gov%7Cde3be98e9fc84271030008d8a1ee4495%7C0693b5ba4b184d7b9341f32f400a5494%7C0%7C0%7C637437392060534873%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=1vWolDvd5RtqpAueHzojro%2FcqQ2Is1SkgDBtFXR7Ero%3D&reserved=0
>
> I believe that this is the opposite pattern to have been reported in the
> first publication to report the diversity pattern for corals (at the genus
> level), Stehli and Wells, 1971.  They reported that coral genera in
> high-diversity areas were younger than in lower diversity areas.
>
> Theories of why corals show this pattern have been very difficult to
> test.  Veron 2000 shows the current map for coral species, genera, and
> families, might also be on his website, https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coralsoftheworld.org%2F&data=04%7C01%7Ccstorlazzi%40usgs.gov%7Cde3be98e9fc84271030008d8a1ee4495%7C0693b5ba4b184d7b9341f32f400a5494%7C0%7C0%7C637437392060534873%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=5VmvnfEw8a%2BZ8u%2BV8iOJfvegXwSA9ilY%2FsGHOSynnws%3D&reserved=0  Fish
> show the same pattern as shown in Figure 14-11 on page 308 in Goldberg's
> text on coral reefs, based on data from Gerry Allen.  Chuck Birkeland
> pointed out that echinoderms show a similar pattern, in his 1989 book
> chapter on "The influence of echinoderms on coral-reef communities."  He
> shows in his Table 1 the data for each class of echinoderms separately, at
> 10 locations, a very strong pattern for every class.  Take a look at this
> chapter, it is an education on echinoderms on reefs.
>
> One interesting idea was that of the "vortex model", that westward flowing
> currents in the Pacific carried newly evolved coral species westward,
> causing them to accumulate in the western Pacific area of highest
> diversity.  Jokeil & Martinelli, 1992.  There was also a similar study that
> modeled the effect of the large number of islands and reefs concentrated in
> the western Pacific vs the very sparse reefs in the eastern Pacific, and
> reported that was sufficient to produce the pattern on its own as well.  I
> never found that publication, does anybody know it?
>
> Cheers,  Doug
>
> Birkeland  1989.   The influence of echinoderms on coral-reef communities.
>
> https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fprofile%2FCharles_Birkeland%2Fpublication%2F284657222_The_influence_of_echinoderms_on_coral-reef_communities%2Flinks%2F56b4c6d308aebbde1a7793c7.pdf&data=04%7C01%7Ccstorlazzi%40usgs.gov%7Cde3be98e9fc84271030008d8a1ee4495%7C0693b5ba4b184d7b9341f32f400a5494%7C0%7C0%7C637437392060534873%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=RnYe2%2BmrHkTgJkmBAwYTfBBs2SZU%2F%2FLNtiigzYzlf%2F8%3D&reserved=0
>
> Goldberg.  2013.  The biology of reefs and reef organisms.  Univ
> Chicago Press
>
> Jokiel & Martinelli.  1992.  The vortex model of coral reef biogeography.
> Journal of Biogeography.
> https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2Fpdf%2F2845572.pdf&data=04%7C01%7Ccstorlazzi%40usgs.gov%7Cde3be98e9fc84271030008d8a1ee4495%7C0693b5ba4b184d7b9341f32f400a5494%7C0%7C0%7C637437392060534873%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=%2FJ30eEUjraOT%2Bg5X5%2FbzXD5eLv0EgqCJd41Pw3fJN3Y%3D&reserved=0
>
> Stehli and Wells.   1971. Diversity and age patterns in hermatypic
> corals.
> https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fciteseerx.ist.psu.edu%2Fviewdoc%2Fdownload&data=04%7C01%7Ccstorlazzi%40usgs.gov%7Cde3be98e9fc84271030008d8a1ee4495%7C0693b5ba4b184d7b9341f32f400a5494%7C0%7C0%7C637437392060534873%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=QPLyZ7TEGZ2%2BP7sR%2BnmyaELh7An7bM70BBlVUFXtDSg%3D&reserved=0
>
> On Sat, Dec 12, 2020 at 6:44 AM Melbourne Briscoe via Coral-List <
> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>
>> What is the currently accepted theory for the global distribution of
>> corals?
>> Is it still the "spreading from the epicenter in the Coral Triangle" as I
>> learned many years ago or is there a more accepted idea today?
>> thanks -
>> - Mel Briscoe
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>