Affiliations 

  • 1 Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Kaneohe, Hawaii, USA
  • 2 ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
  • 3 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panama
  • 4 Centre for Biological Diversity, Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK
  • 5 German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig, Germany
  • 6 Laboratorio de Ingeniería y Procesos Costeros, Instituto de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
  • 7 Downing College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
  • 8 Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  • 9 Institute of Genetics and Biophysics "A. Buzzati-Traverso", National Research Council (CNR), Naples, Italy
  • 10 College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
  • 11 National Marine Science Centre, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia
  • 12 Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 13 School of Biological and Marine Sciences, Plymouth, UK
  • 14 Research and Education on Environment for Future Sustainability (REEFS) Research Interest Group, Faculty of Science and Marine Environment, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus, Malaysia
Ecology, 2023 Mar 07.
PMID: 36882893 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.4017

Abstract

Scleractinian corals are colonial animals with a range of life-history strategies, making up diverse species assemblages that define coral reefs. We tagged and tracked ~30 colonies from each of 11 species during seven trips spanning 6 years (2009-2015) to measure their vital rates and competitive interactions on the reef crest at Trimodal Reef, Lizard Island, Australia. Pairs of species were chosen from five growth forms in which one species of the pair was locally rare (R) and the other common (C). The sampled growth forms were massive (Goniastrea pectinata [R] and G. retiformis [C]), digitate (Acropora humilis [R] and A. cf. digitifera [C]), corymbose (A. millepora [R] and A. nasuta [C]), tabular (A. cytherea [R] and A. hyacinthus [C]) and arborescent (A. robusta [R] and A. intermedia [C]). An extra corymbose species with intermediate abundance, A. spathulata was included when it became apparent that A. millepora was too rare on the reef crest, making the 11 species in total. The tagged colonies were visited each year in the weeks prior to spawning. During visits, two or more observers each took two or three photographs of each tagged colony from directly above and on the horizontal plane with a scale plate to track planar area. Dead or missing colonies were recorded and new colonies tagged to maintain ~30 colonies per species throughout the 6 years of the study. In addition to tracking tagged corals, 30 fragments were collected from neighboring untagged colonies of each species for counting numbers of eggs per polyp (fecundity); and fragments of untagged colonies were brought into the laboratory where spawned eggs were collected for biomass and energy measurements. We also conducted surveys at the study site to generate size structure data for each species in several of the years. Each tagged colony photograph was digitized by at least two people. Therefore, we could examine sources of error in planar area for both photographers and outliners. Competitive interactions were recorded for a subset of species by measuring the margins of tagged colony outlines interacting with neighboring corals. The study was abruptly ended by Tropical Cyclone Nathan (Category 4) that killed all but nine of the more than 300 tagged colonies in early 2015. Nonetheless, these data will be of use to other researchers interested in coral demography and coexistence, functional ecology, and parametrizing population, community, and ecosystem models. The data set is not copyright restricted, and users should cite this paper when using the data.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.