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Photo-movement of coral larvae influences vertical positioning in the ocean

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Abstract

Behaviour can have profound consequences for the dispersal potential of an organism. In the marine environment, larvae rely heavily on oceanic currents to migrate from one area to another. As oceanic currents are faster in the shallows, the vertical positioning of larvae during dispersal is a key factor regulating the distance individuals can travel. Up until now, the vertical positioning of coral larvae has been largely explained by buoyancy, as well as changes in physical and chemical cues. However, here we show that in larvae of coral Pocillopora verrucosa, vertical positioning is influenced by photo-movement. We examined the reaction to light of five coral species in the laboratory and found that only larvae of P. verrucosa, but not other species, displayed a positive photo-response (i.e. an accumulation of larvae close to the light source). This reaction was observed irrespective to the orientation of light from the top, bottom or side. In the field, P. verrucosa larvae accumulated in the top halves of transparent chambers at all depths (1, 7, 15 m), whereas such behaviour failed to occur in dark chambers. Our results demonstrate that light can play an important role for coral larvae to regulate vertical positioning during dispersal and provides a hypothesis that positive photo-movement might allow larvae to disperse further and contribute to the wide geographical distribution of P. verrucosa in the Indo-Pacific.

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Acknowledgements

We thank T-Y Lai, C-L Fong, S Béniguel, J-H Shiu, M-Y Mok and VDH Dang for their assistance in the laboratory; and Chiu-Fu Diving Shop and Green Island Marine Research Station for their field support. We also thank the two anonymous reviewers who helped to improve the manuscript. This study was funded by an internal research grant of Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica (to YN) and JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 20H0330 and 18K19240 (to ST).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biodiversity Program, Taiwan International Graduate Program, Academia Sinica and National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Aziz J. Mulla

  2. Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

    Aziz J. Mulla, Che-Hung Lin & Yoko Nozawa

  3. Department of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Aziz J. Mulla & Yoko Nozawa

  4. National Institute for Basic Biology, Myodaiji, Okazaki, 444-8585, Japan

    Shunichi Takahashi

  5. Tropical Biosphere Research Center, University of Ryukyus, Nishihara, Japan

    Shunichi Takahashi

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  1. Aziz J. Mulla
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Correspondence to Yoko Nozawa.

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Mulla, A.J., Lin, CH., Takahashi, S. et al. Photo-movement of coral larvae influences vertical positioning in the ocean. Coral Reefs 40, 1297–1306 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-021-02141-7

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