Staghorn Coral The Fastest Growing Corals
Staghorn Coral - Staghorn coral or Acropora cervicornis (when I want to sound fancy with my science words) is one of the fastest growing corals which allows it to be one of the species used in coral restoration.
This is 1 of the 3 baby corals I was able to plant with @coralrestorationfoundation in Key Largo, Florida to hopefully grow into a flourishing reef. Saving the ocean, one baby coral at a time!
Staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) can be seen in high densities on happy, healthy reefs, such as this fringing reef in Bonaire. This fast-growing, branching coral is a major architect of coral reef habitat and provides important shelter for smaller fish. Unfortunately, staghorn coral is also highly susceptible to bleaching and many other threats corals face worldwide – by some estimates, staghorn corals have declined up to 98% since the 1980s. Research into coral gardening has targeted these corals due to their importance to the reef and their fast growth rates. Recent studies have shown how successful coral gardening can be – taking samples of wild colonies, growing them in nursery-like conditions and then replanting them in the wild. The results have been very promising.
Outplanting Staghorn Corals
Staghorn coral in our Atlantic coral reef model ecosystem began spawning last night at 2am. To the best of our knowledge, this was the first time that an Atlantic reef-building coral has spawned in an aquarium exhibit. Staghorn corals are broadcast spawners that release gamete bundles from the polyp mouths a few hours after sunset between 2 and 6 days after the full moon in August.
While the gamete bundles contain both eggs and sperm, these corals can't fertilize their own eggs. Unfortunately, all of the Exhibit's staghorn corals are clones so no larvae will be produced. The window of opportunity for additional spawning is open for 3 more nights so we will be checking on them nightly. Stay tuned!
Staghorn coral is an indicator species: they indicate how healthy a reef is. Staghorn is one of the fastest growing corals, but also one of the more fragile ones. These corals are not bleaching, their white tips are a sign of them growing.
P.S. Can you spot the trumpet fish camouflaging amongst the coral?
Happy Staghorn corals thriving in their new home on the reef.
Can you name any critters that use Staghorn coral - like the transplanted ones seen here - as shelter or habitat?
Staghorn Coral at Salt City
This is 1 of the 3 baby corals I was able to plant with @coralrestorationfoundation in Key Largo, Florida to hopefully grow into a flourishing reef. Saving the ocean, one baby coral at a time!
Staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) can be seen in high densities on happy, healthy reefs, such as this fringing reef in Bonaire. This fast-growing, branching coral is a major architect of coral reef habitat and provides important shelter for smaller fish. Unfortunately, staghorn coral is also highly susceptible to bleaching and many other threats corals face worldwide – by some estimates, staghorn corals have declined up to 98% since the 1980s. Research into coral gardening has targeted these corals due to their importance to the reef and their fast growth rates. Recent studies have shown how successful coral gardening can be – taking samples of wild colonies, growing them in nursery-like conditions and then replanting them in the wild. The results have been very promising.
Outplanting Staghorn Corals
Staghorn coral in our Atlantic coral reef model ecosystem began spawning last night at 2am. To the best of our knowledge, this was the first time that an Atlantic reef-building coral has spawned in an aquarium exhibit. Staghorn corals are broadcast spawners that release gamete bundles from the polyp mouths a few hours after sunset between 2 and 6 days after the full moon in August.
While the gamete bundles contain both eggs and sperm, these corals can't fertilize their own eggs. Unfortunately, all of the Exhibit's staghorn corals are clones so no larvae will be produced. The window of opportunity for additional spawning is open for 3 more nights so we will be checking on them nightly. Stay tuned!
Staghorn coral is an indicator species: they indicate how healthy a reef is. Staghorn is one of the fastest growing corals, but also one of the more fragile ones. These corals are not bleaching, their white tips are a sign of them growing.
P.S. Can you spot the trumpet fish camouflaging amongst the coral?
Happy Staghorn corals thriving in their new home on the reef.
Can you name any critters that use Staghorn coral - like the transplanted ones seen here - as shelter or habitat?
Staghorn Coral at Salt City
Staghorn coral fragments kept in acidified water at Mote Labs in Sarasota to better understand impacts these corals could face with expected future levels of ocean acidification.
A school of French grunts (Haemulon flavolineatum) over a beautiful patch of staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis)! Keep a lookout for our next post which we will be releasing a preview of the next episode of 'Meet AECiMa', a YouTube series that follows AECiMa students as they conduct fieldwork in Southwest, Puerto Rico! Stay tuned!
A purple urchin shell among the staghorn coral
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