Corals depend on near neighbors to reproduce, research reveals

A study reveals corals must be within only a few meters of each other to successfully reproduce, leaving them vulnerable in a warming world.

The international research, led by The University of Queensland’s Professor Peter Mumby, measured the success of a natural spawning event in March this year.

The research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“In what came as a surprise, we saw that corals needed to be within 10 meters of one another, and preferably closer than that for fertilization to take place,” Professor Mumby said.

“We knew corals couldn’t be too far apart, but we found they need to be closer than we’d expected.

“Climate change impacts like bleaching are killing and reducing the density of corals, so we’re concerned that individuals may end up too far apart to reproduce successfully.”

To quantify reproduction success, the team placed containers above 26 coral colonies on a reef in Palau, Micronesia during a time when the mostly hermaphroditic corals released eggs and sperm.

“The containers captured some of each corals’ eggs and drifted to the surface where they followed the tide,” Professor Mumby said.

“Although the eggs could not escape, sperm could enter the container and fertilize the eggs.

“After an hour of drifting, the proportion of fertilized eggs was noted for each type of coral along with the distance to similar established corals.”

Fertilization averaged 30% when corals were very close, but it declined to less than 10% at a separation of 10 meters and was virtually zero by 20 meters.

Co-author Dr. Christopher Doropoulos of the CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, said coral reproduction was fundamental to population resilience and evolution.

“In the future we may need to help corals continue this key part of their lives,” Dr. Doropoulos said.

“Understanding the importance of local neighborhoods provides tangible targets for interventions like coral restoration.

“Ideally, the density of corals would be monitored at important locations and restoration carried out to return the density back to the levels required for successful reproduction.”

Professor Mumby has been working on efforts to repair damaged coral reefs.

“Our work over the past five years on the Great Barrier Reef through the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program is also helping to define these critical thresholds to help restoration practitioners set targets for density to help maintain coral populations,” he said.