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Fecundity and the demographic strategies of coral morphologies

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Dornelas_2016_Ecology_CoralMorphologies_FinalPubVersion.pdf (1.822Mb)
Date
02/12/2016
Author
Álvarez-Noriega, Mariana
Baird, Andrew H.
Dornelas, Maria
Madin, Joshua S.
Cumbo, Vivian R.
Connolly, Sean R.
Keywords
Fecundity
Reef coral
Demographic strategies
Morphology
Tradeoff
QH301 Biology
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Abstract
Understanding species differences in demographic strategies is a fundamental goal of ecology. In scleractinian corals, colony morphology is tightly linked with many demographic traits, such as size-specific growth and morality. Here, we test how well morphology predicts the colony size-fecundity relationship in eight species of broadcast-spawning corals. Variation in colony fecundity is greater among morphologies than between species with a similar morphology, demonstrating that colony morphology can be used as a quantitative proxy for demographic strategies. Additionally, we examine the relationship between size-specific colony fecundity and mechanical vulnerability (i.e. vulnerability to colony dislodgment). Interestingly, the relationship between size-specific fecundity and mechanical vulnerability varied among morphologies. For tabular species, the most fecund colonies are the most mechanically vulnerable, while the opposite is true for massive species. For corymbose and digitate colonies, mechanical vulnerability remains relatively constant as fecundity increases. These results reveal strong differences in the demographic trade-offs among species of different morphologies. Using colony morphology as a quantitative proxy for demographic strategies can help predict coral community dynamics and responses to anthropogenic change.
Citation
Álvarez-Noriega , M , Baird , A H , Dornelas , M , Madin , J S , Cumbo , V R & Connolly , S R 2016 , ' Fecundity and the demographic strategies of coral morphologies ' , Ecology , vol. 97 , no. 12 , pp. 3485-3493 . https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.1588
Publication
Ecology
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.1588
ISSN
1939-9170
Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2016 by the Ecological Society of America. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the final published version of the work, which was originally published at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ecy.1588
Description
JM, AB and SC were supported by fellowships from the Australian Research Council (FT110100609, FT0990652 and DP0880544 respectively). MD was supported by the ERC (BioTIME 250189) and the Scottish Funding Council (MASTS - HR09011).
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/9565

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