Coral larvae are poor swimmers and require fine-scale reef structure to settle

Abstract Reef coral assemblages are highly dynamic and subject to repeated disturbances, which are predicted to increase in response to climate change. Consequently there is an urgent need to improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying different recovery scenarios. Recent work has demonst...

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Autores principales:	Tom Hata, Joshua S. Madin, Vivian R. Cumbo, Mark Denny, Joanna Figueiredo, Saki Harii, Christopher J. Thomas, Andrew H. Baird
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2017
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/71f96b6a1c0a445cba4c29738ef0dec5
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:71f96b6a1c0a445cba4c29738ef0dec52021-12-02T16:06:12ZCoral larvae are poor swimmers and require fine-scale reef structure to settle10.1038/s41598-017-02402-y2045-2322https://doaj.org/article/71f96b6a1c0a445cba4c29738ef0dec52017-05-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-02402-yhttps://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Reef coral assemblages are highly dynamic and subject to repeated disturbances, which are predicted to increase in response to climate change. Consequently there is an urgent need to improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying different recovery scenarios. Recent work has demonstrated that reef structural complexity can facilitate coral recovery, but the mechanism remains unclear. Similarly, experiments suggest that coral larvae can distinguish between the water from healthy and degraded reefs, however, whether or not they can use these cues to navigate to healthy reefs is an open question. Here, we use a meta-analytic approach to document that coral larval swimming speeds are orders of magnitude lower than measurements of water flow both on and off reefs. Therefore, the ability of coral larvae to navigate to reefs while in the open-ocean, or to settlement sites while on reefs is extremely limited. We then show experimentally that turbulence generated by fine scale structure is required to deliver larvae to the substratum even in conditions mimicking calm back-reef flow environments. We conclude that structural complexity at a number of scales assists coral recovery by facilitating both the delivery of coral larvae to the substratum and settlement.Tom HataJoshua S. MadinVivian R. CumboMark DennyJoanna FigueiredoSaki HariiChristopher J. ThomasAndrew H. BairdNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Tom Hata Joshua S. Madin Vivian R. Cumbo Mark Denny Joanna Figueiredo Saki Harii Christopher J. Thomas Andrew H. Baird Coral larvae are poor swimmers and require fine-scale reef structure to settle
description	Abstract Reef coral assemblages are highly dynamic and subject to repeated disturbances, which are predicted to increase in response to climate change. Consequently there is an urgent need to improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying different recovery scenarios. Recent work has demonstrated that reef structural complexity can facilitate coral recovery, but the mechanism remains unclear. Similarly, experiments suggest that coral larvae can distinguish between the water from healthy and degraded reefs, however, whether or not they can use these cues to navigate to healthy reefs is an open question. Here, we use a meta-analytic approach to document that coral larval swimming speeds are orders of magnitude lower than measurements of water flow both on and off reefs. Therefore, the ability of coral larvae to navigate to reefs while in the open-ocean, or to settlement sites while on reefs is extremely limited. We then show experimentally that turbulence generated by fine scale structure is required to deliver larvae to the substratum even in conditions mimicking calm back-reef flow environments. We conclude that structural complexity at a number of scales assists coral recovery by facilitating both the delivery of coral larvae to the substratum and settlement.
format	article
author	Tom Hata Joshua S. Madin Vivian R. Cumbo Mark Denny Joanna Figueiredo Saki Harii Christopher J. Thomas Andrew H. Baird
author_facet	Tom Hata Joshua S. Madin Vivian R. Cumbo Mark Denny Joanna Figueiredo Saki Harii Christopher J. Thomas Andrew H. Baird
author_sort	Tom Hata
title	Coral larvae are poor swimmers and require fine-scale reef structure to settle
title_short	Coral larvae are poor swimmers and require fine-scale reef structure to settle
title_full	Coral larvae are poor swimmers and require fine-scale reef structure to settle
title_fullStr	Coral larvae are poor swimmers and require fine-scale reef structure to settle
title_full_unstemmed	Coral larvae are poor swimmers and require fine-scale reef structure to settle
title_sort	coral larvae are poor swimmers and require fine-scale reef structure to settle
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/71f96b6a1c0a445cba4c29738ef0dec5
work_keys_str_mv	AT tomhata corallarvaearepoorswimmersandrequirefinescalereefstructuretosettle AT joshuasmadin corallarvaearepoorswimmersandrequirefinescalereefstructuretosettle AT vivianrcumbo corallarvaearepoorswimmersandrequirefinescalereefstructuretosettle AT markdenny corallarvaearepoorswimmersandrequirefinescalereefstructuretosettle AT joannafigueiredo corallarvaearepoorswimmersandrequirefinescalereefstructuretosettle AT sakiharii corallarvaearepoorswimmersandrequirefinescalereefstructuretosettle AT christopherjthomas corallarvaearepoorswimmersandrequirefinescalereefstructuretosettle AT andrewhbaird corallarvaearepoorswimmersandrequirefinescalereefstructuretosettle
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Coral larvae are poor swimmers and require fine-scale reef structure to settle

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