Citation: Storlazzi CD, van Ormondt M, Chen Y-L and Elias EPL (2017) Modeling Fine-Scale Coral Larval Dispersal and Interisland Connectivity to Help Designate Mutually-Supporting Coral Reef Marine Protected Areas: Insights from Maui Nui, Hawaii. Front. Mar. Sci. 4:381. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00381 Modeling Fine-Scale Coral Larval Dispersal and Interisland Connectivity to Help Designate Mutuall...

Introduction Large bone defects are a challenge to the orthopaedic surgeon. In the present study, we explored the possibility of preparing tissue engineered bone in an autologous manner avoiding the use of either allogenic or xenogenic products in the mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) cultures. For this purpose, we amplified MSCs from sheep in autologous serum (AS) and prepared constructs by loadin...

Coral-excavating sponges are the most important bioeroders on Caribbean reefs and increase in abundance throughout the region. This increase is commonly attributed to a concomitant increase in food availability due to eutrophication and pollution. We therefore investigated the uptake of organic matter by the two coral-excavating sponges Siphonodictyon sp. and Cliona delitrix and tested whether ...

Corals evolved by establishing symbiotic relationships with various microorganisms (the zooxanthellae, filamentous algae, cyanobacteria, bacteria, archaea, fungi and viruses), forming the 'coral holobiont'. Among them, the endolithic community is the least studied. Its main function was considered to be translocation of photo-assimilates to the coral host, particularly during bleaching. Here, w...

A real-time quantitative PCR-based detection assay targeting the dnaJ gene (encoding heat shock protein 40) of the coral pathogen Vibrio coralliilyticus was developed. The assay is sensitive, detecting as little as 1 CFU per ml in seawater and 10(4) CFU per cm(2) of coral tissue. Moreover, inhibition by DNA and cells derived from bacteria other than V. coralliilyticus was minimal. This assay re...

Coral reefs are under increasing pressure from anthropogenic and climate-induced stressors. The ability of reefs to reassemble and regenerate after disturbances (i.e., resilience) is largely dependent on the capacity of herbivores to prevent macroalgal expansion, and the replenishment of coral populations through larval recruitment. Currently there is a paucity of this information for higher la...

Elevated sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are linked to an increase in the frequency and severity of bleaching events due to temperatures exceeding corals' upper thermal limits. The temperatures at which a breakdown of the coral-Symbiodinium endosymbiosis (coral bleaching) occurs are referred to as the upper thermal limits for the coral species. This breakdown of the endosymbiosis results in a r...

Benthic algae are associated with coral death in the form of stress and disease. It's been proposed that they release exudates, which facilitate invasion of potentially pathogenic microbes at the coral-algal interface, resulting in coral disease. However, the original source of these pathogens remains unknown. This study examined the ability of benthic algae to act as reservoirs of coral pathog...

Ocean temperatures are increasing globally and the Caribbean is no exception. An extreme ocean warming event in 2010 placed Tobago's coral reefs under severe stress resulting in widespread coral bleaching and threatening the livelihoods that rely on them. The bleaching response of four reef building taxa was monitored over a six month period across three major reefs systems in Tobago. By identi...

Previous work by Venn et al. describing live imaging of coral mounted on cover slips in miniaturized flow cells and live imaging of coral calcification was inadvertently omitted from the reference list of this Article. This work should have been cited in the second paragraph of the introduction, where previous work describing microscopic examination of coral and coral culture systems are referr...