This study demonstrates how herbivore grazing and substrate variations influence coral recruitment patterns at the Flower Garden Banks, Gulf of Mexico, for two brooding coral species, Agaricia spp. and Porites spp. Three herbivore treatments, two tile textures and two tile orientations were tested. Herbivore grazing significantly affected coral recruit growth for both species. These data sugges...

Macroalgal blooms occur worldwide and have the potential to cause severe ecological and economic damage. Narragansett Bay, RI is a eutrophic system that experiences summer macroalgal blooms composed mostly of Ulva compressa and Ulva rigida, which have biphasic life cycles with separate haploid and diploid phases. In this study, we used flow cytometry to assess ploidy levels of U. compressa and ...

BACKGROUND Hemarthria compressa is a stoloniferous perennial tropical forage grass with a wide geographic distribution; however, environmental stress has a great influence on its growth. The DREB transcription factor family genes contains candidate genes for improving plant stress tolerance. RESULTS From cold-treated H. compressa plants, a putative DREB2 gene (HcDREB2) was cloned using the RA...

Density, mitotic index, Chlorophyll-a content and cell size of symbiotic dinoflagellates of dominant reef-building corals were measured at two different depths in Kish Island and from one depth of Larak Island in the Persian Gulf. The higher densities of symbionts were found in shallow waters of Kish Island. However, ANOVA analyses of the mitotic index yielded mixed results. The cell sizes of s...

Density, mitotic index, Chlorophyll-a content and cell size of symbiotic dinoflagellates of dominant reef-building corals were measured at two different depths in Kish Island and from one depth of Larak Island in the Persian Gulf. The higher densities of symbionts were found in shallow waters of Kish Island. However, ANOVA analyses of the mitotic index yielded mixed results. The cell sizes of s...

Citation: Tortolero-Langarica JJA, Cupul-Magaña AL, Carricart-Ganivet JP, Mayfield AB and Rodríguez-Troncoso AP (2016) Differences in Growth and Calcification Rates in the Reef-Building Coral Porites lobata: The Implications of Morphotype and Gender on Coral Growth. Front. Mar. Sci. 3:179. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2016.00179 Differences in Growth and Calcification Rates in the Reef-Building Coral Por...

In Hawaii, coral reefs occur across a gradient of biological (host abundance), climatic (sea surface temperature anomalies) and anthropogenic conditions from the human-impacted reefs of the main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) to the pristine reefs of the northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI). Coral disease surveys were conducted at 142 sites from across the Archipelago and disease patterns examined. Twe...

Massive scleractinian corals of the genus Porites are important reef builders in the Indo-Pacific, and they are more resistant to thermal stress than other stony corals, such as the genus Acropora. Because coral health and survival largely depend on the interaction between a coral host and its symbionts, it is important to understand the molecular interactions of an entire "coral holobiont". We...