[Coral-List] Spawning of 4-year-old elkhorn corals reared from larvae

[Valérie Chamberland]

Dear Coral-List members,



I hope to enliven your day by sharing positive news for our critically
endangered elkhorn coral. In September 2015, 4-year-old *A. palmata *colonies
that were reared from larvae reproduced in the wild for the first time.
These colonies were bred in the lab from field-collected gametes and kept
in a land-based nursery for a year before they were outplanted to a reef on
Curaçao. Three years later they had grown to 20-30 cm height and were
sexually mature.



This is a well-deserved achievement for all of those who have contributed
to Caribbean *Acropora* research. On behalf of my co-authors, we are
grateful to those who paved the way to this research by spending years
figuring out when Acroporas would spawn, how to collect their gametes, and
well, how to keep their larvae alive!


For further information:



Chamberland VF, Petersen D, Latijnhouwers KWR, Mueller B, Snowden S,
Vermeij MJA. 2016. Four-year-old Caribbean *Acropora *colonies reared from
field-collected gametes are sexually mature. Bulletin of Marine Science:
http://dx.doi.org/10.5343/bms.2015.1074


or



https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292146737_Four-year-old_Caribbean_Acropora_colonies_reared_from_field-collected_gametes_are_sexually_mature


All the best

-- 
___________________________
Valérie F. Chamberland
PhD candidate

SECORE Foundation
*www.secore.org <http://www.secore.org/>*

CARMABI Research Institute
*www.researchstationcarmabi.org <http://www.researchstationcarmabi.org>*

Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED)
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
*http://ibed.uva.nl/ <http://ibed.uva.nl/>*

Phone: +(5999) 513-1205
Email: chamberland.f.valerie at gmail.com