Abstract
The Caribbean coral community structure is changing, particularly species dominance. The Acropora die-off, at many southern and western Caribbean reefs, has allowed the branching scleractinian coral Undaria tenuifolia Dana to become one of the dominant species in these shallow reefs. In this study, colonies of U. tenuifolia were followed for a year using digital imagery. We developed a size class model that allowed us to estimate population fluctuation and growth strategies (colony growth rates and clonal processes). Growth rates varied with colony size; mid-sized colonies doubled their size in a year, while larger colonies often undergo fission. The clonal strategies, i.e., fusion and fission, allow U. tenuifolia to compensate for the low survival rates of early larval post-settlement thus being able to become a dominant coral species in the current reef scenario. The size matrix model formulated on the basis of a relative colony growth rate offered a practical approach for a short-term observation situation, generating a “timeinvariant” transition model. Mortality patterns were not correlated to size classes and were variable by location and time. Overall, population abundance was stable over the monitored period of time. The high survivorship of U. tenuifolia after clonal fragmentation, as well as its high growth rate, suggests that this is a potential species to be cultured, which could be a solution given that this species has become the most common coral being extracted and sold as a souvenir in Cartagena, Colombia. © Acad. Colomb. Cienc. Ex. Fis. Nat. 2015.References
Aronson R.B., Hilbun N.L., Bianchi T.S., Filley T.R., & Mckee B.A. (2014) Land use, water quality, and the history of coral assemblages at Bocas del Toro, Panama. Marine Ecology-Progress Series, 504: 159-170.
Aronson R.B., Macintyre I.G., Precht W.F., Murdoch T.J.T., & Wapnick C.M. (2002a) The expanding scale of species turnover events on coral reefs in Belize. Ecological Monographs, 72: 233-249.
Aronson R.B., Macintyre I.G., Precht W.F., Murdoch T.J.T., & Wapnick C.M. (2002b) The expanding scale of species turnover events on coral reefs in Belize. Ecological Monographs, 72: 233-249.
Aronson R.B., & Precht W.F. (2000) Herbivory and algal dynamics on the coral reef at Discovery Bay, Jamaica. Limnology & Oceanography, 45: 251-255.
Aronson R.B., & Precht W.F. (1995) Landscape patterns of reef coral diversity: a test of the intermediate disturbance hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 192: 1-14.
Aronson R.B., & Precht W.F. (1997) Stasis, biological disturbance, and community structure of a Holocene coral reef. Paleobiology, 23: 326-346.
Aronson R.B., Precht W.F., & Macintyre I.G. (1998) Extrinsic control of species replacement on a Holocene reef in Belize: the role of coral disease. Coral Reefs, 17: 223-230.
Aronson R.B., Precht W.F., Macintyre I.G., & Murdoch T.J.T. (2000) Ecosystems: Coral bleach-out in Belize. Nature, 405: 36-36.
Aronson R.B., Precht W.F., Toscano M.A., & Koltes K.H.(2002c) The 1998 bleaching event and its aftermath on a coral reef in Belize. Marine Biology, 141: 435-447.
Bablet J.P. (1985) Report on the growth of a scleractinia (Fungia paumotensis), In Proceedings 5th International Coral Reef Symposium, Tahiti, pp. 361-365.
Baker A.C. (2003) Flexibility and specificity in coral-algal symbiosis: diversity, ecology, and biogeography of Symbiodinium. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 34: 661-689.
Bak R.P.M., & Luckhurst B.E. (1980) Constancy and change in coral reef habitats along depth gradients at Curaçao. Oecologia, 47: 145-155.
Bellwood D.R., Hughes T.P., Folke C., & Nystrom M. (2004) Confronting the coral reef crisis. Nature, 429: 827-833.
Brazeau D.A., & Lasker H.R. (1992) Growth Rates and Growth Strategy in a Clonal Marine Invertebrate, the Caribbean Octocoral Briareum asbestinum. Biological Bulletin, 183: 269-277.
Cadena N.J., & Sánchez J.A. (2010) Colony growth in the harvested octocoral Pseudopterogorgia acerosa in a Caribbean coral reef. Marine Ecology, 31: 566-573.
Camargo C., Maldonado J., Alvarado E., Moreno-Sánchez R., Mendoza S., Manrique N., Mogollón A., Osorio J., Grajales A., & Sánchez J.A. (2009) Community involvement in management for maintaining coral reef resilience and biodiversity in southern Caribbean marine protected areas. Biodiversity and Conservation, 18: 935-956.
Caswell H. (2001) Matrix population models: construction, analysis, and interpretation 2nd ed. Sunderland, Mass.: Sinauer Associates.Cendales M.H., Zea S., & Díaz J.M. (2002) Geomorfología y unidades ecológicas del complejo de arrecifes de las Islas del Rosario e Isla Barú (Mar Caribe, Colombia). Rev. Acad. Colomb. Cienc, 26: 497-510.
Chadwick-Furman N.E., Goffredo S., & Loya Y. (2000) Growth and population dynamic model of the reef coral Fungia granulosa Klunzinger, 1879 at Eilat, northern Red Sea. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 249: 199-218.
Clark-Tapia R., Alfonso-Corrado C., Eguiarte L.E., & Molina-Freaner F. (2005) Clonal diversity and distribution in Stenocereus eruca (Cactaceae), a narrow endemic cactus of the Sonoran Desert. American Journal of Botany, 92: 272-278.
Connolly S.R., & Muko S. (2003) Space pre-emption, size-dependent competition, and the coexistence of clonal growth forms. Ecology, 84: 2979-2988.
Davies P.S. (1989) Short-term growth measurements of corals using an accurate buoyant weighing technique. Marine Biology, 101: 389-395.
Díaz-Pulido G., Sánchez J.A., Zea S., Díaz J.M., & Garzón-Ferreira J. (2004) Esquemas de distribución espacial en la comunidad bentónica de arrecifes coralinos continentales y oceánicos del Caribe colombiano. Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias, 28: 337-347.
Dullo W.C. (2005) Coral growth and reef growth: a brief review. Facies, 51: 37-52.Eakin C.M., Morgan J.A., Heron S.F., Smith T.B., Liu G., Alvarez-Filip L., Baca B., Bartels E., Bastidas C., & Bouchon C. (2010) Caribbean corals in crisis: record thermal stress, bleaching, and mortality in 2005. PLoS One, 5: e13969.
Fong P., & Glynn P.W. (2000) A regional model to predict coral population dynamics in response to El Niño southern oscillation. Ecological Applications, 10: 842-854.
Foster N.L., Baums I.B., Sanchez J.A., Paris C.B., Chollett I., Agudelo C.L., Vermeij M.J., & Mumby P.J. (2013) Hurricane-driven patterns of clonality in an ecosystem engineer: the Caribbean coral Montastraea annularis. PLoS One, 8: e53283.
Glynn P.W. (1984) Widespread coral mortality and the 1982–83 El Niño warming event. Environmental Conservation, 11: 133-146.
Guest J.R., Baird A.H., Maynard J.A., Muttaqin E., Edwards A.J., Campbell S.J., Yewdall K., Affendi Y.A., & Chou L.M. (2012) Contrasting patterns of coral bleaching susceptibility in 2010 suggest an adaptive response to thermal stress. PLoS One, 7: e33353.
Hagedorn M., Pan R., Cox E.F., Hollingsworth L., Krupp D., Lewis T.D., Leong J.C., Mazur P., Rall W.F., MacFarlane D.R., Fahy G., & Kleinhans F.W. (2006) Coral larvae conservation: Physiology and reproduction. Cryobiology, 52: 33-47.
Highsmith R.C. (1982) Reproduction by fragmentation in corals. Marine Ecology-Progress Series, 7: 207-226.Hughes R.N. (2005) Lessons in modularity: the evolutionary ecology of colonial invertebrates. Scientia Marina, 69: 169-179.
Hughes T.P. (1984) Population Dynamics Based on Individual Size Rather than Age: A General Model with a Reef Coral Example. The American Naturalist, 123: 778.
Hughes T.P., Ayre D., & Connell J.H. (1992) The evolutionary ecology of corals. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 7: 292-295.
Hughes T.P., Baird A.H., Bellwood D.R., Card M., Connolly S.R., Folke C., Grosberg R., Hoegh-Guldberg O., Jackson J.B.C., Kleypas J., Lough J.M., Marshall P., Nystrom M., Palumbi S.R., Pandolfi J.M., Rosen B., & Roughgarden J. (2003) Climate change, human impacts, and the resilience of coral reefs. Science, 301: 929-933.
Hughes T.P., & Jackson J.B.C. (1980) Do Corals Lie About Their Age? Some Demographic Consequences of Partial Mortality, Fission, and Fusion. Science, 209: 713-715.
Hughes T.P., Jackson J.B.C. (1985) Population Dynamics and Life Histories of Foliaceous Corals. Ecological Monographs, 55: 141-166.
Hume B., Angelo C. D’, Burt J., Baker A.C., Riegl B., & Wiedenmann J. (2013) Corals from the Persian/Arabian Gulf as models for thermotolerant reef-builders: Prevalence of clade C3 Symbiodinium, host fluorescence and ex situ temperature tolerance. Marine pollution bulletin, 72: 313-322.
Jackson J.B.C. (2001) What was natural in the coastal oceans? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 98: 5411-5418.
LaJeunesse T.C. (2002) Diversity and community structure of symbiotic dinoflagellates from Caribbean coral reefs. Marine Biology, 141: 387-400.
Lamberts A.E. (1978) Coral growth: alizarin method. Coral reefs: research methods. UNESCO, Paris, 523-527.Langmead O., Sheppard C. (2004) Coral reef community dynamics and disturbance: a simulation model. Ecological Modelling, 175: 271-290.
Lasker H.R. (1990) Clonal Propagation and Population Dynamics of a Gorgonian Coral. Ecology, 71: 1578–1589.
Lasker H.R. (1991) Population growth of a gorgonian coral: equilibrium and non-equilibrium sensitivity to changes in life history variables. Oecologia, 86: 503-509.
Lasker H.R., Boller M.L., Castanaro J., & Sánchez J.A. (2003) Modularity and determinate growth in a gorgonian coral. The Biological Bulletin, 205: 319-330.
Lasker H.R., & Coffroth M.A. (1999) Responses of Clonal Reef Taxa to Environmental Change. American Zoologist, 39: 92-103.
Lasker H.R., & Sánchez J.A. (2002) Allometry and Astogeny of modular organisms, In Reproductive Biology of Invertebrates, pp. 207–253. Ed R. N. Hughes. New York: John Wiley.Lefkovitch L.P. (1965) The study of population growth in organisms grouped by stages. Biometrics, 21: 1-18.
López-Angarita J., Moreno-Sánchez R., Maldonado J.H., Sánchez J.A. (2014) Evaluating Linked Social-Ecological Systems in Marine Protected Areas. Conservation Letters, 7: 241-252.
Meesters E.H., Hilterman M., Kardinaal E., Keetman M., de Vries M., & Bak R.P.M. (2001) Colony size-frequency distributions of scleractinian coral populations: spatial and interspecific variation. Marine Ecology-Progress Series, 209: 43-54.
Restrepo J.D., Zapata P., Diaz J.A., Garzon-Ferreira J., & Garcia C.B. (2006) Fluvial fluxes into the Caribbean Sea and their impact on coastal ecosystems: The Magdalena River, Colombia. Global and Planetary Change, 50: 33-49.
Riegl B., Purkis S.J., Keck J., & Rowlands G.P. (2009) Monitored and modeled coral population dynamics and the refuge concept. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 58: 24-38.
Rinkevich B. (2014) Rebuilding coral reefs: does active reef restoration lead to sustainable reefs? Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 7: 28-36.
Robbart M.L., Peckol P., Scordilis S.P., Curran H.A., & Brown-Saracino J. (2004) Population recovery and differential heat shock protein expression for the corals Agaricia agaricites and A.tenuifolia in Belize. Marine Ecology-Progress Series, 283: 151-160.
Sánchez J.A. (1995) Benthic communities and geomorphology of the Tesoro Island reefs, Colombian Caribbean. Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas de Punta Betín, 24: 55-77.
Sebens K.P. (2003) The Ecology of Indeterminate Growth in Animals. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 18:371-407.
Sebens K.P., Helmuth B., Carrington E., & Agius B. (2003) Effects of water flow on growth and energetics of the scleractinian coral Agaricia tenuifolia in Belize. Coral Reefs, 22: 35-47.
Soong K. (1991) Sexual reproductive patterns of shallow-water reef corals in Panama. Bulletin of Marine Science, 49: 832-846.
Soong K., Lang J.C. (1992) Reproductive Integration in Reef Corals. Biol Bull, 183: 418-431.
Tanner J.E. (1997) Interspecific competition reduces fitness in scleractinian corals. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 214: 19-34.
Velásquez J., López-Angarita J., & Sánchez J.A. (2011) Evaluation of the FORAM index in a case of conservation. Biodiversity and Conservation, 20: 3591-3603.
Vernette G. (1985) La plateforme Continentale Caribe de Colombie (du debouche du Magdalena au Golfe de Morrosquillo). Tesis Doctoral a L’Universite de Bordeaux, Bordeaux.[Links].
Vernette G., Mauffret A., Bobier C., Briceno L., & Gayet J.(1992) Mud diapirism, fan sedimentation and strike-slip faulting, Caribbean Colombian margin. Tectonophysics, 202: 335-349.
Vollmer S.V., & Palumbi S.R. (2006) Restricted Gene Flow in the Caribbean Staghorn Coral Acropora cervicornis: Implications for the Recovery of Endangered Reefs. Journal of Heredity, esl057.
Wilkinson C., & Souter D. (2008) Status of Caribbean Coral Reefs after Bleaching and Hurricanes in 2005. Townsville: Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, and Reef and Rainforest Research Center.
Yoshioka P.M. (1994) Size-specific life history pattern of a shallow-water gorgonian. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology & Ecology, 184: 111-122.
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2015 Journal of the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences