[Coral-List] Growth rate of Dendrogyra

[McCarty and Peters]

Dear Pedro,

I have not measured growth rates in Dendrogrya, but for my postdoc I
measured growth rates of Dichocoenia, which is a relative.  Skeletal
extension was approximately 1-2 mm per year, making it one of the slowest
growing corals.

I recall Ian Macintyre at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural
History told me that Dendrogyra is also slow growing, because, as with
Dichocoenia, he could not obtain banding patterns using X-ray imaging of
thin skeletal slices.  The annual lines are too closely spaced.  I am
copying him on this message, perhaps he has some calculations somewhere.
(I'm also copying Steve Cairns of the museum on this also, in case he knows
Ian does not do e-mail, perhaps he can give him this message in hard copy..)

Esther Peters


Date:  09-Mar-04 15:54:06  MsgID: MC3-1-7526-A009  ToID: 73261,2212
From:  AOML.Coral-List at noaa.gov >INTERNET:AOML.Coral-List at noaa.gov
Subj:  [Coral-List] Growth rate of Dendrogyra
Chrg:  $0.00   Imp: Norm   Sens: Std    Receipt: No    Parts: 1

 
Dear Coral-listers,
I would appreciate very much  to receive information about vertical growth
rate of Dendrogyra cilyndrus (minimum-average-maximum, if possible). There
is a huge colony (roughly measured as more than 15 feet in height,
according to film-maker divers, one of them estimated it is 18 feet high)
on a fore reef at the south east of the entrance of the Bay of Cienfuegos
(Faro Luna dive site) in the south central Cuba. We need to estimate very
approximately its age range. It was filmed for a scientific-popular video
on coral reefs, and it would be interesting to talk about its possible age,
to aware people about what would mean the loss of such a colony. Do you
know about a Dendrogyra colony taller than this one? Thank you very much.
Best wishes,
Pedro
 
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