Meeting Abstract

79.4  Friday, Jan. 7  Reproductive Strategy, Larval Behavior and Recruitment among Caribbean Octocorals LASKER, H.R.; University at Buffalo hlasker@buffalo.edu

Caribbean octocorals have reproductive strategies which include broadcast spawning, surface brooding and brooding. In the genus Pseudopterogorgia differences in the timing of development, release and behavior of propagules combine to generate different patterns of dispersal and recruitment. Pseudopterogorgia bipinnata, P. elisabethae, and P. kallos are surface brooders which maintain fertilized eggs on the colony surface until they are released/washed from the colony. The larvae are negatively buoyant but in situ observations show that swimming behavior can slow and even reverse the settling rate. Pseudopterogorgia hystrix broods larvae which are negatively buoyant and are competent to settle upon release. Sinking rates of P. hystrix larvae increase after release. In contrast broadcast spawning species must go through a period of development in the water column prior to settling, and species for which data are available have positively buoyant eggs. The distribution and abundance of recruits of these species is generally consistent with their larval behavior. P. hystrix are highly philopatric and densities shortly after settlement can reach 1 cm^-2. The surface brooding species also appear to be philopatric as they have recruitment rates that correlate with adult distributions. Broadcast spawning species, such as P. americana, have more uniform and lower recruitment rates. While patterns of recruitment in nature vary with the reproductive strategies, site specific differences and annual variation also play a large role in contributing to variation in recruitment.