scholarly journals High potential for formation and persistence of chimeras following aggregated larval settlement in the broadcast spawning coral, Acropora millepora

2011 ◽  
Vol 279 (1729) ◽  
pp. 699-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Puill-Stephan ◽  
M. J. H. van Oppen ◽  
K. Pichavant-Rafini ◽  
B. L. Willis
Keyword(s):  
Marine Invertebrates ◽  
Larval Settlement ◽  
Early Life History ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Broadcast Spawning ◽  
Acropora Millepora ◽  
Reef Corals ◽  
Life History Stages ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
High Level

In sessile modular marine invertebrates, chimeras can originate from fusions of closely settling larvae or of colonies that come into contact through growth or movement. While it has been shown that juveniles of brooding corals fuse under experimental conditions, chimera formation in broadcast spawning corals, the most abundant group of reef corals, has not been examined. This study explores the capacity of the broadcast spawning coral Acropora millepora to form chimeras under experimental conditions and to persist as chimeras in the field. Under experimental conditions, 1.5-fold more larvae settled in aggregations than solitarily, and analyses of nine microsatellite loci revealed that 50 per cent of juveniles tested harboured different genotypes within the same colony. Significantly, some chimeric colonies persisted for 23 months post-settlement, when the study ended. Genotypes within persisting chimeric colonies all showed a high level of relatedness, whereas rejecting colonies displayed variable levels of relatedness. The nearly threefold greater sizes of chimeras compared with solitary juveniles, from settlement through to at least three months, suggest that chimerism is likely to be an important strategy for maximizing survival of vulnerable early life-history stages of corals, although longer-term studies are required to more fully explore the potential benefits of chimerism.

scholarly journals Immobilisation of living coral embryos and larvae

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carly J. Randall ◽  
Christine Giuliano ◽  
David Mead ◽  
Andrew J. Heyward ◽  
Andrew P. Negri
Keyword(s):  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life History ◽  
Living Cells ◽  
Living Coral ◽  
Broadcast Spawning ◽  
Life History Stages ◽  
Gelling Temperature ◽  
Commercial Applications ◽  
Multiple Species

Abstract Embedding and immobilisation of living cells and microorganisms is used in a variety of research and commercial applications. Here we report the successful extended immobilisation of coral larvae in a low-gelling temperature agarose. Embryos and larvae of five broadcast-spawning Scleractinian species were immobilised in agarose gel and tested in a series of exploratory survival and settlement assays. The optimal developmental stage for immobilisation was after ciliation at approximately 24 hours post-fertilisation, after which, survival of immobilised larvae of all species was nearly 100%. In long-term assays, 50% of Montipora digitata larvae survived immobilised for 89 days. Furthermore, immobilised larvae of multiple species, that were released from the agarose, generally remained capable of settlement. These results demonstrate that the immobilisation of the early life-history stages of corals is possible for a variety of applications in basic and applied science.

Size-dependent natural mortality of juvenile banana prawns Penaeus merguiensis in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia

1999 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 313 ◽  
Author(s):  
You-Gan Wang ◽  
M. D. E. Haywood
Keyword(s):  
Marine Invertebrates ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Early Life History ◽  
Natural Mortality ◽  
Parametric Function ◽  
Frequency Pattern ◽  
Life History Stages ◽  
Size Dependent ◽  
Very High ◽  
Extra Parameter

Natural mortality of marine invertebrates is often very high in the early life history stages and decreases in later stages. The possible size-dependent mortality of juvenile banana prawns, P. merguiensis (2–15 mm carapace length) in the Gulf of Carpentaria was investigated. The analysis was based on the data collected at 2-weekly intervals by beam trawls at four sites over a period of six years (between September 1986 and March 1992). It was assumed that mortality was a parametric function of size, rather than a constant. Another complication in estimating mortality for juvenile banana prawns is that a significant proportion of the population emigrates from the study area each year. This effect was accounted for by incorporating the size-frequency pattern of the emigrants in the analysis. Both the extra parameter in the model required to describe the size dependence of mortality, and that used to account for emigration were found to be significantly different from zero, and the instantaneous mortality rate declined from 0.89 week–1 for 2 mm prawns to 0.02 week–1 for 15 mm prawns.

scholarly journals Tough Adults, Frail Babies: An Analysis of Stress Sensitivity across Early Life-History Stages of Widely Introduced Marine Invertebrates

PLoS ONE ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. e46672 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Carmen Pineda ◽  
Christopher D. McQuaid ◽  
Xavier Turon ◽  
Susanna López-Legentil ◽  
Víctor Ordóñez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Marine Invertebrates ◽  
Early Life History ◽  
Stress Sensitivity ◽  
Life History Stages

scholarly journals Tradeoffs to Thermal Acclimation: Energetics and Reproduction of a Reef Coral with Heat TolerantSymbiodiniumType-D

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison M. Jones ◽  
Ray Berkelmans
Keyword(s):  
Reef Coral ◽  
Bleaching Event ◽  
Larval Duration ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Broadcast Spawning ◽  
Acropora Millepora ◽  
Reef Corals ◽  
Type D ◽  
Tropical Reefs ◽  
Spawning Time

The photo-physiological characteristics of thermo-tolerantSymbiodiniumtypes have been postulated to have negative effects on the energetics of the reef corals by reducing fitness. To investigate this, two key and inextricably coupled indicators of fitness, lipids and reproduction, were monitored in colonies of the broadcast-spawning coralAcropora milleporaover a two-year period that included a natural bleaching event. In the absence of bleaching ITS1-type clade D predominant colonies had 26% lower stored lipids compared to C2 colonies. At spawning time, this correlated with 28% smaller eggs in type-D colonies. This energetic disparity is expected to have reduced larval duration and settlement-competency periods in type-D compared to type-C2 colonies. More importantly, irrespective of the effect of genotype, the fitness of all corals was adversely affected by the stress of the bleaching event which reduced prespawning lipids by 60% and halved the number of eggs compared to the previous year. Our results extend work that has shown that direct temperature stress and symbiont change are likely to work in concert on corals by demonstrating that the lipids and reproduction of the reef building corals on tropical reefs are likely to be impaired by these processes as our climate warms.

I Feel That! Fluid Dynamics and Sensory Aspects of Larval Settlement across Scales

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Fluid Dynamics ◽  
Marine Invertebrates ◽  
Larval Settlement ◽  
External Environment ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Larval Biology ◽  
Sea Floor ◽  
External Cues ◽  
Juvenile Habitat

A commonality among oceanic life cycles is a process known as settlement, where dispersing propagules transition to the sea floor. For many marine invertebrates, this transition is irreversible, and therefore involves a crucial decision-making process through which larvae evaluate their juvenile habitat-to-be. In this chapter, we consider aspects of the external environment that could influence successful settlement. Specifically, we discuss water flow across scales, and how larvae can engage behaviors to influence where ocean currents take them, and enhance the likelihood of their being carried toward suitable settlement locations. Next, we consider what senses larvae utilize to evaluate their external environment and properly time such behavioral modifications, and settlement generally. We hypothesize that larvae integrate these various external cues in a hierarchical fashion, with differing arrangements being employed across ontogeny and among species. We conclude with a brief discussion of the future promises of larval biology, ecology, and evolution.

scholarly journals Seeds and Seedlings in a Changing World: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis from High Altitude and High Latitude Ecosystems

Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 768
Author(s):  
Jerónimo Vázquez-Ramírez ◽  
Susanna E. Venn
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
High Altitude ◽  
High Latitude ◽  
Seedling Establishment ◽  
Early Life History ◽  
Life Stages ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Life History Stages ◽  
Early Snowmelt

The early life-history stages of plants, such as germination and seedling establishment, depend on favorable environmental conditions. Changes in the environment at high altitude and high latitude regions, as a consequence of climate change, will significantly affect these life stages and may have profound effects on species recruitment and survival. Here, we synthesize the current knowledge of climate change effects on treeline, tundra, and alpine plants’ early life-history stages. We systematically searched the available literature on this subject up until February 2020 and recovered 835 potential articles that matched our search terms. From these, we found 39 studies that matched our selection criteria. We characterized the studies within our review and performed a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the extracted meta-data regarding the climatic effects likely to change in these regions, including projected warming, early snowmelt, changes in precipitation, nutrient availability and their effects on seed maturation, seed dormancy, germination, seedling emergence and seedling establishment. Although the studies showed high variability in their methods and studied species, the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the extracted data allowed us to detect existing patterns and knowledge gaps. For example, warming temperatures seemed to favor all studied life stages except seedling establishment, a decrease in precipitation had a strong negative effect on seed stages and, surprisingly, early snowmelt had a neutral effect on seed dormancy and germination but a positive effect on seedling establishment. For some of the studied life stages, data within the literature were too limited to identify a precise effect. There is still a need for investigations that increase our understanding of the climate change impacts on high altitude and high latitude plants’ reproductive processes, as this is crucial for plant conservation and evidence-based management of these environments. Finally, we make recommendations for further research based on the identified knowledge gaps.

Inbreeding depression and floral type fitness differences in Viola canadensis (Violaceae), a species with chasmogamous and cleistogamous flowers

2000 ◽  
Vol 78 (11) ◽  
pp. 1420-1429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa M Culley
Keyword(s):  
Inbreeding Depression ◽  
Survival Rates ◽  
Early Life History ◽  
Flower Number ◽  
Life History Stages ◽  
The North ◽  
History Of ◽  
Vegetative Biomass ◽  
Similar Survival ◽  
Cross Type

Few studies of inbreeding depression have focused on species producing both showy, chasmogamous (CH) flowers and self-pollinated, cleistogamous (CL) flowers. The goals of this investigation were to measure the level of inbreeding depression in the North American violet, Viola canadensis L., and to determine if any fitness differences were linked to floral type (CH versus CL) rather than to cross type (self versus outcross). Hand pollinations were carried out to produce self- and outcross-pollinated CH progeny, and CL seeds were also collected. In a greenhouse, selfed and outcrossed CH flowers produced similar numbers of seeds, and both types of progeny had similar survival rates and comparable numbers of CH flowers, although outcrossed CH progeny had 14% greater vegetative biomass than selfed CH progeny. The level of inbreeding depression in V. canadensis was low, indicating that there may be few drawbacks to selfing in this species. A comparison of CL and self-pollinated CH progeny showed that, although there were differences in CH flower number, overall fitness differences were minimal. The similar performance of selfed (CL and CH) and outcrossed progeny in early life-history stages of V. canadensis suggests a history of inbreeding in the population.Key words: cleistogamy, inbreeding depression, outcrossing, selfing, Viola canadensis.

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