[Coral-List] Lesion recovery & coral reproduction

Sangeeta Mangubhai smangubhai at africaonline.co.ke
Fri Oct 3 02:12:17 EDT 2003


Coral-listers,

I am currently looking at fecundity and gametogenic cycles of selected
Faviids and Acroporas in Kenya. I am collecting Platygyra daedalea and P.
sinensis fragments (4x4cm) from large tagged colonies on a 1-2 monthly basis
and examining for egg and testes development. I have also been monitoring
the recovery of the different lesions I am creating.

I am concerned that the size of the lesions and eventually the number of
collections I may need to make will effect my fecundity measurements,
especially for the "smaller" sized colonies. I have read Oren et al. 2001
paper which saw a reduction in fecundity up to 15cm away on large colonies
with large lesions. The physical structure of Platygyra and difficulty of
removing fragments using a hammer and chisel means I cannot reduce the size
of the sample being collected. Being at the equator and with the high
possibility of asynchronous spawning, also means I cannot collect samples
from random colonies to reduce this "stress" on my tagged corals.

I am writing to ask whether anyone has looked at the impact of repetitive
collections on fecundity and/or other aspects of reproduction, and what
their findings were? And how they dealt with this question in terms of their
sampling design?

I would appreciate any papers being forwarded to me on this topic if
available.

Regards Sangeeta
____________________________
Sangeeta Mangubhai
P.O. Box 10135
Bamburi, Mombasa
KENYA
Tel/Fax: +254 (041) 5486 473
Mobile: 0733 698 771
smangubhai at africaonline.co.ke




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