BACKGROUND The demography of a coral colony is not a binary trajectory of life and death. Based on the flexibility afforded by colonial organization, most reef-building corals employ a variety of dynamic survival strategies, including growth and shrinkage. The demographic flexibility affects coral size, shape and reproductive output, among other factors. It is thus critical to quantify the rela...

Porites corals are foundation species on Pacific reefs but a confused taxonomy hinders understanding of their ecosystem function and responses to climate change. Here, we show that what has been considered a single species in the eastern tropical Pacific, Porites lobata, includes a morphologically similar yet ecologically distinct species, Porites evermanni. While P. lobata reproduces mainly se...

Coral bleaching and mortality can show significant spatial taxonomic heterogeneity at local scales, highlighting the need to understand fine-scale drivers impacts of thermal stress. In this study, we used structure-from-motion photogrammetry track coral bleaching, mortality, changes in community composition during 2019 marine heatwave Kāneʻohe Bay, Hawaiʻi. We surveyed 30 shallow reef patches e...

The current study examined the biochemical composition of four seaweeds (Ulva fasciata, Ulva compressa, Corallina officinalis, and elongate) which were collected from Eastern Harbor located at Alexandria Mediterranean coast, Egypt. Total chlorophyll content was maximum in compressa (2.7 mg g–1 FW) minimum value observed elongate (0.90 FW). In comparison, carotenoids registered officinalis (1.04...

Coral reefs are some of the most diverse and productive ecosystems on the planet, but are threatened by global and local stressors, mandating the need for incorporating ex situ conservation practices. One approach that is highly protective is the development of genome resource banks that preserve the species and its genetic diversity. A critical component of the reef are the endosymbiotic algae...

Population models are important for resource management and can inform about potential trajectories useful for planning purposes, even with incomplete monitoring data. From size frequency data on Luhuitou fringing reef, Hainan, South China Sea, a matrix population model of massive corals (Porites lutea) was developed and trajectories over 100 years under no disturbance and random disturbances w...

Reductions in calcification in reef-building corals occur when thermal conditions are suboptimal, but it is unclear how they vary between genera in response to the same thermal stress event. Using densitometry techniques, we investigate reductions in the calcification rate of massive Porites spp. from the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), and P. astreoides, Montastraea faveolata, and M. franksi from th...

The multicellular green alga Enteromorpha (Ulvales, Chlorophyta) includes some economically valuable species cultivated as "Aonori" (green laver) in Japan. The life cycle of the genus Enteromorpha consists of gametophytic and sporophytic foliaceous thalli, which are indistinguishable in appearance. Both male and female gametes of E. compressa can grow parthenogenetically and can be cloned into ...

Nudibranchs that exclusively eat scleractinian corals provide a rare opportunity to study specialist predation in the marine environment. To measure the diet breadth of 4 Phestilla species on Guam, we offered the nudibranchs different corals in choice and no-choice feeding assays. Larval preferences were determined by measuring the percent metamorphosis in response to different coral species. W...

Citation: Pootakham W, Naktang C, Sonthirod C, Yoocha T, Sangsrakru D, Jomchai N, Putchim L and Tangphatsornruang S (2018) Development of a Novel Reference Transcriptome for Scleractinian Coral Porites lutea Using Single-Molecule Long-Read Isoform Sequencing (Iso-Seq). Front. Mar. Sci. 5:122. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2018.00122 Development of a Novel Reference Transcriptome for Scleractinian Coral Po...