In Hawaii, abundance of the scleractinian Fungia scutaria is thought to have been
in decline in recent years due to disturbances to Kaneohe Bay, where an unusually dense
population exists. This study examines factors that could limit population growth in this
coral. Sexual reproduction occurred throughout the summer. Experimental data from
sperm dilution studies suggested that eggs must be released within 2m of a spawning
male for successful fertilization to occur. Field surveys indicated that many patch reefs
exhibited high enough densities to yield successful fertilization. However, since field
surveys found that only a small percentage (1 %) of juvenile corals (5 cm in length)
resulted from settled larvae, post-fertilization processes may be limiting successful
recruitment. Asexual reproduction appears to be dominant, with 70% of corals occurring
in close aggregations, and 93% of these in aggregations made up of a single color-morph. / Thesis (M. A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2000. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-74).
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UHAWAII/oai:scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu:10125/16333 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | Lacks, Amy L |
| Publisher | University of Hawai‘i, Honolulu |
| Source Sets | University of Hawaii at Manoa Libraries |
| Language | en-US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Text |
| Format | 83 pages |
| Rights | All UHM dissertations and theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission from the copyright owner. |
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