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31 December 2024 Spawning of coral reef invertebrates and a second spawning season for scleractinian corals in the central Red Sea
Jessica Bouwmeester, Remy Gatins, Emily Clark Giles, Tane Hemi Sinclair-Taylor, Michael Lee Berumen
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Abstract

Recent coral spawning observations in the central Red Sea show that most scleractinian species release their gametes in the spring, with a majority of species spawning in April. There is, however, a lack of reproductive data for several other coral species, as well as a general lack of data for other invertebrates. Here, we document the detailed timing of spawning for 13 scleractinian coral species, one sea anemone, and six echinoderms from an inshore reef off the coast of Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, in the spring between April and June 2014. Furthermore, inferred from the presence of mature gametes, we report the month of spawning for three additional coral species in the spring. Seven scleractinian coral species were inferred to release their gametes in a second reproductive season, in the autumn, between September and November. This is the first report of a second spawning season in the Arabian region. Biannual spawning has so far been reported on the Great Barrier Reef, in Western Australia, in Indonesia, in Malaysia, in Palau, in Thailand, in Taiwan, and in Western Samoa.

Jessica Bouwmeester, Remy Gatins, Emily Clark Giles, Tane Hemi Sinclair-Taylor, and Michael Lee Berumen "Spawning of coral reef invertebrates and a second spawning season for scleractinian corals in the central Red Sea," Invertebrate Biology 135(3), 273-284, (31 December 2024). https://doi.org/10.1111/ivb.12129
Published: 31 December 2024
KEYWORDS
anemone
biannual spawning
echinoderm
gametogenesis
reproductive biology
Saudi Arabia
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