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

Thu Dec 17 02:43:21 UTC 2020

Thanks for that Curt. Unfortunately Paul isn't around to further clarify
(and probably wouldn't bother), but I think it's worth noting that his
vortex theory had nothing to do with coral sperm, eggs or larvae, but
rather rafting of corals settled on floating objects, as you point out.
Therefore survival time is irrelevant, since the movement would be of
settled corals that might reach a new destination and reproduce. He
supported the idea with corals settled on  previously floated pumice (and
on other things, see the amusing reference below) that he found throughout
the Pacifiic I never fully brought into the theory but thought it was a new
and interesting paradigm. If it's been discarded I'm not aware of it.

Steve Coles

Jokiel, P. L. 1992. How corals gain new foothold in new environments. Coral
Reefs 11:192.

On Wed, Dec 16, 2020 at 11:55 AM Storlazzi, Curt D via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> 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>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> 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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> >>
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> >>
> >
>
>
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