Early Life History of Deep-Water Gorgonian Corals May Limit Their Abundance
Deep-water gorgonian corals are long-lived organisms found worldwide off continental margins and seamounts, usually occurring at depths of ∼200–1,000 m. Most corals undergo sexual reproduction by releasing a planktonic larval stage that disperses; however, recruitment rates and the environmental and...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3677872 2023-05-15T17:45:42+02:00 Early Life History of Deep-Water Gorgonian Corals May Limit Their Abundance Lacharité, Myriam Metaxas, Anna 2013-06-10 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3677872 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23762358 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0065394 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3677872 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23762358 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0065394 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2013 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0065394 2013-09-05T00:52:41Z Deep-water gorgonian corals are long-lived organisms found worldwide off continental margins and seamounts, usually occurring at depths of ∼200–1,000 m. Most corals undergo sexual reproduction by releasing a planktonic larval stage that disperses; however, recruitment rates and the environmental and biological factors influencing recruitment in deep-sea species are poorly known. Here, we present results from a 4-year field experiment conducted in the Gulf of Maine (northwest Atlantic) at depths >650 m that document recruitment for 2 species of deep-water gorgonian corals, Primnoa resedaeformis and Paragorgia arborea. The abundance of P. resedaeformis recruits was high, and influenced by the structural complexity of the recipient habitat, but very few recruits of P. arborea were found. We suggest that divergent reproductive modes (P. resedaeformis as a broadcast spawner and P. arborea as a brooder) may explain this pattern. Despite the high recruitment of P. resedaeformis, severe mortality early on in the benthic stage of this species may limit the abundance of adult colonies. Most recruits of this species (∼80%) were at the primary polyp stage, and less than 1% of recruits were at stage of 4 polyps or more. We propose that biological disturbance, possibly by the presence of suspension-feeding brittle stars, and limited food supply in the deep sea may cause this mortality. Our findings reinforce the vulnerability of these corals to anthropogenic disturbances, such as trawling with mobile gear, and the importance of incorporating knowledge on processes during the early life history stages in conservation decisions. Text Northwest Atlantic Paragorgia arborea PubMed Central (PMC) PLoS ONE 8 6 e65394 |
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Research Article Lacharité, Myriam Metaxas, Anna Early Life History of Deep-Water Gorgonian Corals May Limit Their Abundance |
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Research Article |
description |
Deep-water gorgonian corals are long-lived organisms found worldwide off continental margins and seamounts, usually occurring at depths of ∼200–1,000 m. Most corals undergo sexual reproduction by releasing a planktonic larval stage that disperses; however, recruitment rates and the environmental and biological factors influencing recruitment in deep-sea species are poorly known. Here, we present results from a 4-year field experiment conducted in the Gulf of Maine (northwest Atlantic) at depths >650 m that document recruitment for 2 species of deep-water gorgonian corals, Primnoa resedaeformis and Paragorgia arborea. The abundance of P. resedaeformis recruits was high, and influenced by the structural complexity of the recipient habitat, but very few recruits of P. arborea were found. We suggest that divergent reproductive modes (P. resedaeformis as a broadcast spawner and P. arborea as a brooder) may explain this pattern. Despite the high recruitment of P. resedaeformis, severe mortality early on in the benthic stage of this species may limit the abundance of adult colonies. Most recruits of this species (∼80%) were at the primary polyp stage, and less than 1% of recruits were at stage of 4 polyps or more. We propose that biological disturbance, possibly by the presence of suspension-feeding brittle stars, and limited food supply in the deep sea may cause this mortality. Our findings reinforce the vulnerability of these corals to anthropogenic disturbances, such as trawling with mobile gear, and the importance of incorporating knowledge on processes during the early life history stages in conservation decisions. |
format |
Text |
author |
Lacharité, Myriam Metaxas, Anna |
author_facet |
Lacharité, Myriam Metaxas, Anna |
author_sort |
Lacharité, Myriam |
title |
Early Life History of Deep-Water Gorgonian Corals May Limit Their Abundance |
title_short |
Early Life History of Deep-Water Gorgonian Corals May Limit Their Abundance |
title_full |
Early Life History of Deep-Water Gorgonian Corals May Limit Their Abundance |
title_fullStr |
Early Life History of Deep-Water Gorgonian Corals May Limit Their Abundance |
title_full_unstemmed |
Early Life History of Deep-Water Gorgonian Corals May Limit Their Abundance |
title_sort |
early life history of deep-water gorgonian corals may limit their abundance |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3677872 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23762358 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0065394 |
genre |
Northwest Atlantic Paragorgia arborea |
genre_facet |
Northwest Atlantic Paragorgia arborea |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3677872 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23762358 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0065394 |
op_rights |
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0065394 |
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PLoS ONE |
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8 |
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6 |
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e65394 |
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