NDLI: Settling into an Increasingly Hostile World: The Rapidly Closing “Recruitment Window” for Corals

Content Provider	PubMed Central
Author	Arnold, Suzanne N. Steneck, Robert S.
Editor	Bell, James
Copyright Year	2011
Abstract	Free space is necessary for larval recruitment in all marine benthic communities. Settling corals, with limited energy to invest in competitive interactions, are particularly vulnerable during settlement into well-developed coral reef communities. This situation may be exacerbated for corals settling into coral-depauperate reefs where succession in nursery microhabitats moves rapidly toward heterotrophic organisms inhospitable to settling corals. To study effects of benthic organisms (at millimeter to centimeter scales) on newly settled corals and their survivorship we deployed terra-cotta coral settlement plates at 10 m depth on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef in Belize and monitored them for 38 mo. During the second and third years, annual recruitment rates declined by over 50% from the previous year. Invertebrate crusts (primarily sponges) were absent at the start of the experiment but increased in abundance annually from 39, 60, to 73% of the plate undersides by year three. Subsequently, substrates hospitable to coral recruitment, including crustose coralline algae, biofilmed terra-cotta and polychaete tubes, declined. With succession, substrates upon which spat settled shifted toward organisms inimical to survivorship. Over 50% of spat mortality was due to overgrowth by sponges alone. This result suggests that when a disturbance creates primary substrate a “recruitment window” for settling corals exists from approximately 9 to 14 mo following the disturbance. During the window, early-succession, facilitating species are most abundant. The window closes as organisms hostile to coral settlement and survivorship overgrow nursery microhabitats.
Related Links	http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0028681
Starting Page	28681
File Format	PDF
ISSN	19326203
e-ISSN	19326203
Journal	PLoS ONE
Issue Number	12
Volume Number	6
Language	English
Publisher	Public Library of Science
Publisher Date	2011-12-01
Access Restriction	Open
Rights Holder	Public Library of Science
Subject Keyword	Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all) Agricultural and Biological Sciences(all) Medicine(all) Research in Higher Education
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Multidisciplinary

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
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9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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