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Publications (37)
Assisted sexual coral propagation, resulting in greater genet diversity via genetic recombination, has been hypothesized to lead to more adaptable and, hence, resilient restored populations compared to more common clonal techniques. Coral restoration efforts have resulted in substantial populations of ‘Assisted sexual Recruits’ (i.e., juvenile cora...
Caribbean coral reefs account for only 7% of the world total coral reef area but play a vital role in the economy of the Caribbean and the livelihoods of millions of people
who depend upon the reefs for income and employment. Coral cover has declined from 50% in the 1970s to less than 20% today, potentially reducing the ability of
the reefs to prov...
The use of sexually propagated corals is gaining popularity as an approach for reef restoration. However, manually attaching substrates with recently settled corals to the reef using binding materials is both time-consuming and expensive, limiting the use of this technique to small spatial scales. We present a novel approach whereby young corals ar...
Coral reef degradation worldwide and the concomitant increasing demand for corals to supply the marine ornamental trade have been driving the growing interest for coral aquaculture. Captive breeding and propagation of corals among aquarium hobbyists and public aquariums is a well-known and established activity. In contrast, the scientific community...
Despite the fact that most of the severe demographic bottlenecks in coral populations occur during their earliest life stages, information on the reproductive biology and early life history traits of many coral species is limited and often inferred from adult traits only. This study reports on several atypical aspects of the reproductive biology an...
Elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) populations provide important ecological functions on shallow Caribbean reefs, many of which were lost when a disease reduced their abundance by more than 95% beginning in the mid-1970s. Since then, a lack of significant recovery has prompted rehabilitation initiatives throughout the Caribbean. Here, we report the f...
Coral aquaculture is an activity of growing interest due to the degradation of coral reefs worldwide and concomitant growing demand for corals by three industries: marine ornamental trade, pharmaceutical industry and reef restoration. Although captive breeding and propagation of corals is a well-known activity among aquarium hobbyists and public aq...
In order to improve the methodology for growing and maintaining corals in captivity, a consortium of European zoos, aquaria and academia executed a four-year public/private collaborative research and innovation project (CORALZOO) on the breeding and husbandry of stony corals. CORALZOO comprised the following topics: (1) sexual and asexual breeding...
Coral reefs are experiencing unprecedented degradation due to human activities, and protecting specific reef habitats may not stop this decline, because the most serious threats are global (i.e., climate change), not local. However, ex situ preservation practices can provide safeguards for coral reef conservation. Specifically, modern advances in c...
In coral aquaculture, sexual reproduction increasingly plays an important role for serving trade and reef restoration purposes. However, until coral juveniles reach a semi-stable size which makes them less vulnerable against algal growth and sedimentation, high mortality rates may occur in the first several weeks to months after settlement. In the...
AbsTrACT Public aquaria increasingly apply sexual reproduction as a tool to managing their coral live stock. Since biological processes are better understood and since techniques are developed to obtain sexual propagules either from captive corals or from the field, sexual recruits may be produced from an increasing number of species. In captivity,...
A multiple-choice questionnaire was distributed, mainly via the list servers of the EUAC (European Union of Aquarium Curators) Coral ASP (Animal Sustainability Program) and AquaticInfo, to evaluate the potential of today's aquariums for the captive breeding of scleractinian corals. Sixteen (including the temperate coral Astroides calycularis) of, i...
We studied the recruitment of the Caribbean reef building corals Favia fragum (F. fragum) and Agaricia humilis(A. humilis) in captivity. Thirty colonies of each species collected in Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles, reproduced sexually during a temporary stay in a 30-m(3) closed system from November 2001-January 2002. Twelve months later, the F1 gener...
1.SECORE (SExual COral REproduction) Project is an initiative of public aquariums and research institutions to produce and exchange sexual coral recruits for the sustainable management of ex situ populations. Here we present the results of the initial three years (2002–2004).2.Primary polyps (n=501) of corals (Acropora tenuis, Agaricia humilis, Fav...
Due to the lack of appropriate methods to transport high amounts of larvae ex situ over large distances, the availability
of coral larvae was so far mainly limited to their place of origin. For a research project at Rotterdam Zoo, The Netherlands,
we transported several thousand larvae of three broadcast spawners (Acropora tenuis, A. digitifera, Di...
When applying sexual reproduction in coral mariculture, success highly depends on optimizing larval settlement rates. Various environmental factors influencing settlement are known from field-related research; however, hardly any literature is currently available dealing with larval settlement behaviour under mariculture conditions. We investigated...
Fortschritte in der Aquarientechnik (beispielsweise bezüglich der Wasserqualität und Lichtbedingungen) ermöglichen heute die Nachzucht von Korallen fernab von ihrem natürlichen Lebensraum. Im Oceanium Rotterdam wurden Larven der freilaichenden Zweigkoralle Acropora tenuis, die in Japan im Riff aufgefangen wurden, großgezogen; die “brütende”, d.h. f...
We designed settlement tiles for coral culture with the aims: (1) to attract and (2) to spatially control settlement and (3) to produce substrate units for further handling in mariculture. Ceramic tiles with vertical (i.e. pyramid tile; truncated pyramid shape, 22.022.0, 1.0mm, LW) and horizontal surfaces (i.e. flat tile; 17.017.0, 1.0mm, LW) were...
ABSTRACT: In September 2003, translocation of the scleractinian coral Agaricia humilis on the reef of Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles, was followed by a prodigious release of small floating premature larvae by all colonies (n = 19). Release occurred mainly during the first 3 d after sampling and peaked with 8.02 ± 7.60 (mean ± SD) embryos cm–2 d–1 on...
Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Duisburg-Essen, 2005. Compilation of papers, some written with other authors and previously published in journals.
Transportation techniques for scleractinian corals have been described mainly for fragments and small colonies. As part of a recent study on captive sexual reproduction of the Caribbean species Montastrea annularis and Diploria strigosa, we transported relatively large (max. diameter of 21 cm), heavy (max. weight of 9,200 g) colonies of both specie...
Coral reefs have been described as very stable systems in delicate balance with nature. They are also the most sensitive and vulnerable ecosystems in the sea (Grigg and Dollar 1990). Their exposure to some of the most common natural and anthropogenic perturbations have caused considerable decline of their health during the last three decades (Grigg...
Natural recruitment of scleractinian corals is highly influenced by various environmental effects. Predation, sedimentation, algal growth and grazing may cause high mortality rates in larvae and settlers. In the past, methods have been developed to produce large quantities of planulae. Under laboratory conditions the survival of ex situ produced pr...
Coral reefs are some of the oldest and most diverse ecosystems on our planet, yet throughout their range coral reefs are declining precipitously, mainly as the consequence of human activities. In situ conservation practices, such as habitat pres-ervation, are an important way to protect coral reefs. However, reefs now face global threats in additio...
Um künftig Zuchtmethoden etablieren zu können, behandelt die vorliegende Dissertation die drei essentiellen Schritte in der sexuellen Vermehrung von Korallen: Das Planulationsverhalten, die Ansiedlung sowie die ersten Jugendstadien wurden anhand von Modelarten in ex situ Populationen studiert. Die vorliegende Arbeit umfasst praktische, anwendungsor...