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Rare Parthenogenic Reproduction In A Common Reef Coral, Porites Astreoides, Alicia A. Vollmer

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Multiple stressors have caused a decline in coral populations. Broadcast spawning corals once dominated the Florida Reef Tract (FRT), but since their decline, smaller brooding corals, soft corals, and macroalgae are replacing them. Brooding corals are more resilient to current threats in part because they are reproductive throughout much of the year and their larvae are competent to settle after release. Despite the ubiquity of brooders on Florida reefs, much of their reproductive strategy remains unknown. This study aimed to examine paternity as a function of colony size and density in Porites astreoides, a common brooding coral in the …