The effects of turbidity and sedimentation stress on early life stages of corals are poorly understood, particularly in Atlantic species. Dredging operations, beach nourishment, and other coastal construction activities can increase sedimentation and turbidity in nearby coral reef habitats and have the potential to negatively affect coral larval development and metamorphosis, reducing sexual reproduction success. In this study, we investigated the performance of larvae of the threatened Caribbean coral species Orbicella faveolata exposed to suspended sediments collected from a reef site in southeast Florida recently impacted by dredging (Port of Miami), and compared it to the performance of larvae exposed to sediments collected from the offshore, natal reef of the parent colonies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMesophotic reefs (30-150 m) have been proposed as potential refugia that facilitate the recovery of degraded shallow reefs following acute disturbances such as coral bleaching and disease. However, because of the technical difficulty of collecting samples, the connectivity of adjacent mesophotic reefs is relatively unknown compared with shallower counterparts. We used genotyping by sequencing to assess fine-scale genetic structure of at two sites at Pulley Ridge, a mesophotic coral reef ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico, and downstream sites along the Florida Reef Tract.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDisease mortality has been a primary driver of population declines and the threatened status of the foundational Caribbean corals, and . There remain few tools to effectively manage coral disease. Substantial investment is flowing into culture and population enhancement efforts, while disease takes a variable but sometimes high toll in restored populations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIdentifying which factors lead to coral bleaching resistance is a priority given the global decline of coral reefs with ocean warming. During the second year of back-to-back bleaching events in the Florida Keys in 2014 and 2015, we characterized key environmental and biological factors associated with bleaching resilience in the threatened reef-building coral Orbicella faveolata. Ten reefs (five inshore, five offshore, 179 corals total) were sampled during bleaching (September 2015) and recovery (May 2016).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo date, most assessments of coral connectivity have emphasized long-distance horizontal dispersal of propagules from one shallow reef to another. The extent of vertical connectivity, however, remains largely understudied. Here, we used newly-developed and existing DNA microsatellite loci for the brooding coral Porites astreoides to assess patterns of horizontal and vertical connectivity in 590 colonies collected from three depth zones (≤10 m, 15-20 m and ≥25 m) at sites in Florida, Bermuda and the U.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe investigated the functional development of feedback regulation of cortisol levels during early development in a marine teleost, summer flounder, using a novel pharmaceutical approach. Larvae were immersed for 4h in the glucocorticoid agonist dexamethasone (20 microM) and/or the glucocorticoid-receptor antagonist RU486 (0.12 microM) at 1, 7, or 21 days after hatching.
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