Madrepora oculata

Last updated

Madrepora oculata
Zigzag coral (Madrepora oculata).jpg
Madrepora oculata.jpg
Status NZTCS D.svg
Declining (NZ TCS) [1]
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Hexacorallia
Order: Scleractinia
Family: Oculinidae
Genus: Madrepora
Species:
M. oculata
Binomial name
Madrepora oculata
Synonyms
List
  • Amphihelia moresbyiAlcock, 1898
  • Cyathohelia formosaAlcock, 1898
  • Lophohelia investigatorisAlcock, 1898
  • Lophohelia tenuisMoseley, 1881
  • Madrepora alcockiFaustino, 1927
  • Madrepora candida(Moseley, 1881)
  • Madrepora kauaiensisVaughan, 1907
  • Madrepora tenuis(Moseley, 1881)
  • Madrepora venustaMilne Edwards & Haime, 1850
  • Madrepora vitiaeSquires & Keyes, 1967

Madrepora oculata, also called zigzag coral, is a stony coral that is found worldwide outside of the polar regions, growing in deep water at depths of 50 to at least 1500 meters. [2] It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. [3] It is one of only 12 species of coral that are found worldwide, including in Subantarctic oceans. [4] In some areas, such as in the Mediterranean Sea and the Northeast Atlantic Ocean, it dominates communities of coral. [5] Due to their similar distribution and taxonomic relationship, M. oculata is often experimentally compared to related deep sea coral, Lophelia pertusa. [6]

Contents

Description

The species is quite variable in its tendency to branch, its texture, and its color, even within specimens of the same coral colony. It is bushy, growing in small colonies that form thickets, creating matrices that are fan-shaped and about 30 to 50 cm high. It has thick skeletal parts that grow in a lamellar pattern. [7] The coral has been found to grow 3–18 mm per year with the addition of about 5 polyps a year. This growth rate has been found to be comparable to related deep sea coral, Lophelia pertusa. [8]

As its skeleton is fragile and unable to sustain a large framework, it is usually found among stronger coral, such as Lophelia pertusa and Goniocorella dumosa, that offer protection. In areas where it dominates, it is usually found in rubble and debris rather than in coral reefs. [5]

The species is a bank-building coral, meaning it tends to build upwards, in a linear fashion. Bank reefs are built by non-photosynthetic calcifiers, as they occur at depths sunlight cannot reach. [9]

Madrepora oculata produces large amounts of extracellular mucus, which acts in a protective capacity to shield the coral skeleton from being bored into by endolithic organisms. [7]

Distribution & Habitat

M. oculata is distributed worldwide, but is most densely concentrated in the northern Atlantic Ocean, southern and western Pacific Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea. [10] While temperatures range from 5-9 °C in the northern Atlantic Ocean, temperatures reach 11-13 °C in the Mediterranean. Though the species is distributed through many temperatures, it has been shown experimentally that the species does not display thermal acclimation in both respiration and calcification. Alternatively, L. pertusa does exhibit thermal acclimation in respiration and calcification, indicating species-specific diversity between deep sea corals. [11] While M. oculata does not exhibit thermal acclimation, has been experimentally shown to have a high resistance to pH in terms of skeletal growth and calcification. [12]

Reproduction

The species is known to perform continuous reproduction, releasing fewer but larger oocytes when compared to seasonal reproducers like Desmophyllum pertusum. They are broadcast spawners, meaning they release their gametes into open water for fertilization. Madrepora oculata are also gonochoristic, as they possess different gametes for different sexes. [13]

There has been some evidence of seasonality reproduction for the species, although this is hypothesized to be due to environmental signals such as periods of increased primary productivity (allowing for more particulate organic carbon availability in the benthos) rather than true seasonality. [14]

Hypertrophy

The first instances of possible cancer in coral were reported in a species of Madrepora in Hawaiian waters in which hypertrophied corallites were noted. Similarly hypertrophied corallites were described in colonies of Madrepora oculata near northwestern Australia and Japan, as well as in the Formosa Strait and other areas, but have never been confirmed. A recent provisional reinterpretation is that these abnormal corallites are a form of internal gall, an abnormal swelling or growth caused by infection by a parasite, rather than a classical neoplasm. [15]

Related Research Articles

Darwin Mounds is a large field of undersea sand mounds situated off the north west coast of Scotland that were first discovered in May 1998. They provide a unique habitat for ancient deep water coral reefs and were found using remote sensing techniques during surveys funded by the oil industry and steered by the joint industry and United Kingdom government group the Atlantic Frontier Environment Network (AFEN). The mounds were named after the research vessel, itself named for the eminent naturalist and evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin.

<i>Lophelia</i> Species of cnidarian

Lophelia pertusa, the only species in the genus Lophelia, is a cold-water coral that grows in the deep waters throughout the North Atlantic ocean, as well as parts of the Caribbean Sea and Alboran Sea. Although L. pertusa reefs are home to a diverse community, the species is extremely slow growing and may be harmed by destructive fishing practices, or oil exploration and extraction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anton Dohrn Seamount</span> Guyot in the Rockall Trough in the northeast Atlantic

The Anton Dohrn Seamount is a guyot in the Rockall Trough in the northeast Atlantic. It is 1.8 kilometres (1.1 mi) high and is topped with pinnacles, one of which reaches a depth of 530 metres (1,740 ft). Away from the flat top upon which the pinnacles rest, the slopes fall off steeply into the Rockall Trough and a moat in the sediment that surrounds the seamount.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deep-water coral</span> Marine invertebrates

The habitat of deep-water corals, also known as cold-water corals, extends to deeper, darker parts of the oceans than tropical corals, ranging from near the surface to the abyss, beyond 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) where water temperatures may be as cold as 4 °C (39 °F). Deep-water corals belong to the Phylum Cnidaria and are most often stony corals, but also include black and thorny corals and soft corals including the Gorgonians. Like tropical corals, they provide habitat to other species, but deep-water corals do not require zooxanthellae to survive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hotspot Ecosystem Research and Man's Impact On European Seas</span> International multidisciplinary project that studies deep-sea ecosystems

Hotspot Ecosystem Research and Man's Impact On European Seas (HERMIONE) is an international multidisciplinary project, started in April 2009, that studies deep-sea ecosystems. HERMIONE scientists study the distribution of hotspot ecosystems, how they function and how they interconnect, partially in the context of how these ecosystems are being affected by climate change and impacted by humans through overfishing, resource extraction, seabed installations and pollution. Major aims of the project are to understand how humans are affecting the deep-sea environment and to provide policy makers with accurate scientific information, enabling effective management strategies to protect deep sea ecosystems. The HERMIONE project is funded by the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme, and is the successor to the HERMES project, which concluded in March 2009.

<i>Eumunida picta</i> Species of crustacean

Eumunida picta is a species of squat lobster found in the deep sea. The species is strongly associated with reefs of Lophelia pertusa, a deep-water coral, and with methane seeps. It is abundant in the western Atlantic Ocean, where it is found from Massachusetts to Colombia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone</span> Oceanic feature on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone is a system of two parallel fracture zones. It is the most prominent interruption of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between the Azores and Iceland, with the longest faults in the North Atlantic, and is ecologically an important biosystems boundary. It can be traced over more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi), from north-east of Newfoundland to south-west of Ireland. It took 90 million years for the fault to grow to this length.

<i>Favia fragum</i> Species of coral

Favia fragrum is a species of colonial stony coral in the family Mussidae. It is commonly known as the golfball coral and is found in tropical waters on either side of the Atlantic Ocean.

<i>Acropora aspera</i> Species of coral

Acropora aspera is a species of staghorn coral in the family Acroporidae. It is found on reef flats and in lagoons in very shallow water in the western Indo-Pacific Ocean.

<i>Euphyllia cristata</i> Species of coral

Euphyllia cristata is commonly called Grape coral. E. cristata is a kind of stony or hard coral in the family Euphylliidae; it also belongs to the genus Euphyllia in the order of Scleractinia. E. cristata has a wide range of distribution throughout the tropical waters of the Indo-West Pacific area with a large presence in Indonesia. However, despite this large range of distribution, E. cristata has a slightly lower abundance compared to other species, making them a little more uncommon to find. They are typically found in shallow waters from 1–35 meters deep.

The Rost Reef is a deep-water coral reef off the coast of the Lofoten islands in Nordland county, Norway. The reef was discovered in 2002, about 100 kilometres (62 mi) west of the island of Røstlandet. It extends over a length of about 43 kilometers (27 mi), and has a width of up to 6.9 kilometers (4.3 mi). The reef is generated by the coral Lophelia pertusa, and is the world's largest known Lophelia reef. It is also the world's largest known deep-water coral reef. The authorities have introduced regulations to protect the reef against trawling. The temperature of the waters near the bottom of the Rost coral reef is 2 °C. WWF recognises the Røst Reef as a global natural heritage that merits protection through Marine Protected Area (MPA) status.

<i>Paragorgia arborea</i> Species of coral

Paragorgia arborea is a species of coral in the family Paragorgiidae, commonly known as the bubblegum coral because of its bulbous branch tips. It mainly grows in depths between 200 and 1,300 metres at temperatures between 3 and 8 °C. It is found widespread in the Northern Atlantic Ocean and Northern Pacific Ocean on seamounts and knolls, and was first described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758. P. arborea is a foundation species, providing a habitat for other species in deep sea coral ecosystems.

<i>Astrangia poculata</i> Species of coral

Astrangia poculata, the northern star coral or northern cup coral, is a species of non-reefbuilding stony coral in the family Rhizangiidae. It is native to shallow water in the western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It is also found on the western coast of Africa. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists this coral as being of "least concern". Astrangia poculata is an emerging model organism for corals because it harbors a facultative photosymbiosis, is a calcifying coral, and has a large geographic range. Research on this emerging model system is showcased annually by the Astrangia Research Working Group, collaboratively hosted by Roger Williams University, Boston University, and Southern Connecticut State University

<i>Madracis auretenra</i> Species of coral

Madracis auretenra, commonly known as the yellow finger coral or yellow pencil coral, is a colonial species of stony coral in the family Pocilloporidae. It is a fairly common species and is found in the Caribbean Sea and western Atlantic Ocean. At one time this species was not recognised, but it was split from Madracis mirabilis on the grounds of morphology and depth range.

Eunice norvegica is an aquatic polychaete worm found in deep water on the seabed of the northern Atlantic Ocean as well as in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It is a tubeworm and is often associated with deep water corals.

<i>Oxypora glabra</i> Species of coral

Oxypora glabra is a species of large polyp stony coral in the family Lobophylliidae. It is a colonial coral with thin encrusting laminae. It is native to the central Indo-Pacific.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aquatic sill</span> A sea floor barrier of relatively shallow depth restricting water movement between oceanic basins

An aquatic sill is a sea floor barrier of relatively shallow depth that restricts water movement between benthic zones of an oceanic basin or lake bottom. There are roughly 400 sills in the Earth's oceans, covering 0.01% of the seafloor. A classic example is the Strait of Gibraltar Gateway between the Mediterranean sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

Leucia violacea is a species of polychaete worm, commonly known as a "scale worm", in the family Polynoidae. This species occurs in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean.

<i>Halimeda opuntia</i> Species of alga (seaweed)

Halimeda opuntia, sometimes known as the watercress alga, is a species of calcareous green seaweed in the order Bryopsidales. It is native to reefs in the Indo-Pacific region, the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

References

  1. Funnell, Greig; et al. (January 2023). Todd, Amanda (ed.). Conservation status of indigenous marine invertebrates in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2021 (PDF) (Report). New Zealand Department of Conservation. p. 21. ISBN   978-1-99-118365-1 . Retrieved 27 September 2024.
  2. Hansson, Lina; Agis, Martin; Maier, Cornelia; Weinbauer, Markus G. (2009). "Community composition of bacteria associated with cold-water coral Madrepora oculata: within and between colony variability". Marine Ecology Progress Series. 397: 89–102. doi:10.3354/meps08429. ISSN   0171-8630. JSTOR   24874291.
  3. Covadonga Orejas, Christine Ferrier-Pagès, Stéphanie Reynaud, Georgios Tsounis, Denis Allemand, Josep Maria Gili, "Experimental comparison of skeletal growth rates in the cold-water coral Madrepora oculata Linnaeus, 1758 and three tropical scleractinian corals," Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 405(1-2), 2011, p. 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2011.05.008.
  4. "NOAA's Coral Reef Information System (CoRIS) - Deep Water Corals". coris.noaa.gov. Archived from the original on 2010-02-21. Retrieved 2009-10-30.
  5. 1 2 "What is Madrepora oculata?" (PDF). Deepsea Conservation for the United Kingdom Project. Retrieved 2009-10-30.
  6. Arnaud-Haond, S.; Van den Beld, I.M.J.; Becheler, R.; Orejas, C.; Menot, L.; Frank, N.; Grehan, A.; Bourillet, J.F. (November 2017). "Two "pillars" of cold-water coral reefs along Atlantic European margins: Prevalent association of Madrepora oculata with Lophelia pertusa, from reef to colony scale". Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography. 145: 110–119. doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2015.07.013. ISSN   0967-0645.
  7. 1 2 Reitner, Joachim. Calcifying extracellular mucus substances (EMS) of Madrepora oculata. www.springerlink.com. doi:10.1007/3-540-27673-4_38. ISBN   9783540241362 , 9783540276739.
  8. Orejas, C.; Gori, A.; Gili, J. M. (2008-06-01). "Growth rates of live Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata from the Mediterranean Sea maintained in aquaria". Coral Reefs. 27 (2): 255. doi:10.1007/s00338-007-0350-7. ISSN   1432-0975.
  9. Altuna, Álvaro (2013). "Scleractinia (Cnidaria: Anthozoa) from ECOMARG 2003, 2008 and 2009 expeditions to bathyal waters off north and northwest Spain (northeast Atlantic)". Zootaxa. 3641 (2): 101–128. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3641.2.1. ISSN   1175-5326. PMID   26287072.
  10. Orejas, Covadonga; Wienberg, Claudia; Titschack, Jürgen; Tamborrino, Leonardo; Freiwald, André; Hebbeln, Dierk (2021-07-26). "Madrepora oculata forms large frameworks in hypoxic waters off Angola (SE Atlantic)". Scientific Reports. 11 (1): 15170. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-94579-6. ISSN   2045-2322. PMC   8313707 . PMID   34312452.
  11. Naumann, Malik S.; Orejas, Covadonga; Ferrier-Pagès, Christine (January 2014). "Species-specific physiological response by the cold-water corals Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata to variations within their natural temperature range". Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography. 99: 36–41. doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2013.05.025.
  12. Movilla, Juancho; Gori, Andrea; Calvo, Eva; Orejas, Covadonga; López-Sanz, Àngel; Domínguez-Carrió, Carlos; Grinyó, Jordi; Pelejero, Carles (2013-12-31). "Resistance of Two Mediterranean Cold-Water Coral Species to Low-pH Conditions". Water. 6 (1): 59–67. doi: 10.3390/w6010059 . hdl: 2445/98901 . ISSN   2073-4441.
  13. Chemel, M.; Meistertzheim, A. L.; Mouchi, V.; Lartaud, F. (2023-05-01). "Reproductive biology of the two main reef-building cold-water coral species (Desmophyllum pertusum and Madrepora oculata) in the Mediterranean Sea". Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers. 195: 103984. doi: 10.1016/j.dsr.2023.103984 . ISSN   0967-0637.
  14. Waller, Rhian G.; Tyler, Paul A. (2005-11-01). "The reproductive biology of two deep-water, reef-building scleractinians from the NE Atlantic Ocean". Coral Reefs. 24 (3): 514–522. doi:10.1007/s00338-005-0501-7. ISSN   1432-0975.
  15. Mark J. Grygier, Stephen D. Cairns (January 4, 1996). "Suspected neoplasms in deep-sea corals (Scleractinia: Oculinidae: Madrepora spp.) reinterpreted as galls caused by Petrarca madreporae n. sp. (Crustacea: Ascothoracida: Petrarcidae)" (PDF). Diseases of Aquatic Organisms. Retrieved 2009-10-30.