SYDNEY: Researchers in Australia have identified the reproductive timing of two key coral species at the state of Western Australia's Ningaloo Reef, providing a baseline that could help monitor reef recovery and guide restoration efforts.
Researchers visited Ningaloo Reef off the Western Australian coast to investigate Porites corals, a group of reef-building corals that play a major role in creating and maintaining reef habitats throughout the Indo-Pacific, according to a statement released Thursday by Australia's Curtin University.
For the first time, the team determined when some of Ningaloo Reef's key corals reproduce, providing a baseline to track marine heatwave impacts, reef recovery and restoration opportunities, the statement said.
Understanding coral reproduction was essential because reefs could not recover unless corals successfully produced the next generation, said PhD candidate David Juszkiewicz from Curtin's Coral Conservation and Research Group.
A damaged reef recovers because surviving corals produce offspring that go on to "replenish and rebuild the reef," said Juszkiewicz, lead author of the study published in Marine Biology.
The researchers examined 20 coral colonies from Ningaloo Reef and found evidence that two important reef-building species, Porites lutea and Porites lobata, were preparing to spawn during the reef's annual early autumn mass spawning period, providing the first reproductive baseline for these species at Ningaloo.
No signs of reproduction were found in a third species, Porites australiensis, suggesting it may spawn at a different time of year and highlighting the need for year-round monitoring, according to the study.
The researchers said the regional differences in reproductive timing could mean the populations are reproductively isolated, potentially limiting their ability to replenish each other after marine heatwaves or cyclones. - Xinhua
