A coral spawning calendar for Sesoko Station, Okinawa, Japan

Pocillopora meandrinadaytime broadcast spawning in Moorea, French Polynesia

“…Multiple studies indicate recruitment of Pocilloporidae peaks between December - April each year (Gleason 1996; Adjeroud et al 2007; Edmunds et al 2010). This broad window and the documentation that Pocillopora verrucosa (morphologically identified) spawns in the new moon in all other locations reported to date (Shlesinger and Loya 1985; Kinzie 1993; Kruger and Schleyer 1998; Hirose et al 2000, 2001; Bouwmeester et al 2011, 2021; Baird et al 2022) indicates additional work remains in the area of species-specific Pocillopora spp . gametogenesis, spawning, development, and recruitment in French Polynesia.…”

“…This information supports a synchronization of Pocillopora spp . spawning of ∼45-180 minutes after sunrise between different locations around the world, such as Australia (∼45 minutes after sunrise (Schmidt-Roach et al 2012)), Okinawa, Japan (∼95 to 120 minutes after sunrise (Kinzie 1993; Hirose et al 2000, 2001; Baird et al 2022)), Hawai□i (∼120 minutes after sunrise (Schmidt-Roach et al 2014)), and the Red Sea (∼180 minutes after sunrise (Bouwmeester et al 2011, 2021)). Split-spawning and species-specific windows are both possible in Moorea.…”

“…The presence of Pocilloporid species diversity in Moorea, including P. meandrina, P. April each year (Gleason 1996;Adjeroud et al 2007;Edmunds et al 2010). This broad window and the documentation that Pocillopora verrucosa (morphologically identified) spawns in the new moon in all other locations reported to date (Shlesinger and Loya 1985;Kinzie 1993;Kruger and Schleyer 1998;Hirose et al 2000Hirose et al , 2001Bouwmeester et al 2011Bouwmeester et al , 2021Baird et al 2022) (Bouwmeester et al 2011(Bouwmeester et al , 2021). Split-spawning and species-specific windows are both possible in Moorea.…”

“…While not all past studies conducted genetic species identification, there are reports of spawning near the full moon for P. meandrina in Australia (Schmidt-Roach et al 2012), Hawai i (Apprill et al 2009;Schmidt-Roach et al 2014) and for P. grandis in Japan (Kinzie 1993;Hirose et al 2000Hirose et al , 2001. In contrast, observations of P. verrucosa spawning have been made during the new moon in the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia, Sudan (Bouwmeester et al 2011(Bouwmeester et al , 2021, and Eilat (Shlesinger and Loya 1985), as well as in South Africa (Kruger and Schleyer 1998) and in Japan (Kinzie 1993;Hirose et al 2000Hirose et al , 2001Baird et al 2022). In light of this, we monitored Pocillopora spp.…”

Short-term improvement of heat tolerance in naturally growing Acropora corals in Okinawa

“…For example, failure to acclimatize to a simulated consecutive bleaching event was linked to low basal energy reserves, which in turn was attributed to the peak in temperatures coinciding with end of the reproductive season ( Grottoli et al, 2014 ; Schoepf et al, 2015 ). Acropora corals at our study site generally spawn synchronously in June, a month before the temperatures begin to rise ( Baird et al, 2022 ; Singh et al, 2022 ). Although we do not know if this is enough time for Acropora corals to recover their basal energy reserves after reproduction, the reproductive period does not overlap with increased heat stress at our study site.…”