The populations of Acropora palmata have decreased over the last four decades, and although there are several studies on their genetic diversity in Caribbean, no been published about reefs from southern Gulf Mexico. This research aimed to determine, using five microsatellite markers, variation three A. Mexican Atlantic located southwest Mexico, Campeche Bank, Caribbean. mean richness (Ng/N) stu...

The chevron butterflyfish Chaetodon trifascialis is an obligate corallivore found on Indo-Pacific coral reefs. The typical northern extent of the distributional range of the chevron butterflyfish overlaps with the occurrence of one of its preferred corals Acropora cytherea on reefs of French Frigate Shoals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Here I document the occurrence of a single C. trifa...

In a coral-algae symbiotic system, heat-dependent photoinhibition of photosystem II (PSII) leads to coral bleaching. When the reef-building coral Acropora digitifera was exposed to light, a moderate increase of temperature induced coral bleaching through photobleaching of algal pigments, but not through expulsion of symbiotic algae. Monitoring of PSII photoinhibition revealed that heat-dependen...

Larval production and recruitment underpin the maintenance of coral populations, but these early life history stages are vulnerable to extreme variation in physical conditions. Environmental managers aim to minimise human impacts during significant periods of larval production and recruitment on reefs, but doing so requires knowledge of the modes and timing of coral reproduction. Most corals ar...