title: Reproductive strategies of the coral Turbinaria reniformis in the northern Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea).
abstract: Here we describe for the first time the reproductive biology of the scleractinian coral Turbinaria reniformis studied during three years at the coral reefs of Eilat and Aqaba. We also investigated the possibility of sex change in individually tagged colonies followed over a period of 12 years. T. reniformis was found to be a stable gonochorist (no detected sex change) that reproduces by broadcast spawning 5-6 nights after the full moon of June and July. Spawning was highly synchronized between individuals in the field and in the lab. Reproduction of T. reniformis is temporally isolated from the times at which most other corals reproduce in Eilat. Its relatively long reproductive cycle compared to other hermaphroditic corals may be due to the high reproductive effort associated with the production of eggs by gonochoristic females. Sex ratio in both the Aqaba and Eilat coral populations deviated significantly from a 1:1 ratio. The larger number of males than of females may provide a compensation for sperm limitation due to its dilution in the water column. We posit that such sex allocation would facilitate adaptation within gonochoristic species by increasing fertilization success in low density populations, constituting a phenomenon possibly regulated by chemical communication.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Hanna
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rapuano
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Itzchak
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Brickner
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shlesinger
authors.affiliation: The Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences, P.O. Box 469, Eilat 8810369, Israel.
authors.forename: Efrat
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Meroz-Fine
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel.|The Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences, P.O. Box 469, Eilat 8810369, Israel.
authors.forename: Raz
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tamir
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Yossi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Loya
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005718:Gametogenesis; D019156:Indian Ocean; D008297:Male; D012098:Reproduction; D012621:Seasons; D012744:Sex Ratio