Jess Bouwmeester

Smithsonian Institution · Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

Vitrification‐based cryopreservation is a promising approach to achieving long‐term storage of biological systems for maintaining biodiversity, healthcare, and sustainable food production. Using the “cryomesh” system achieves rapid cooling and rewarming of biomaterials, but further improvement in cooling rates is needed to increase biosystem viabil...

Anthropogenic stressors threaten reefs worldwide and natural in situ coral reproduction may be inadequate to meet this challenge. Land-based culture can provide increased coral growth, especially with microfragments. We tested whether culture methods using different algal fouling communities could improve the growth and health metrics of microfragm...

Coral reefs are threatened by anthropogenic climate change, which causes ocean acidification and warming that can result in coral death and the loss of genetic diversity on reefs around the world. Global efforts to secure the genetics of threatened populations using cryopreservation and biobanking are underway but are limited to coral sperm and lar...

Climate change is causing ocean acidification and warming, resulting in mass bleaching and death of corals globally. Cryopreservation and biobanking to secure the genetics of threatened populations is currently limited to coral sperm and larvae, which are only available during brief annual spawning events and are impacted by ocean warming, so there...

Tropical coral reefs offer a wide variety of habitats to countless invertebrate species. Sessile host organisms especially are inhabited by small taxa, of which decapod crustaceans form one of the most diverse communities. Symbiotic palaemonid shrimp species associate with marine invertebrate hosts from multiple phyla, including cnidarians such as...

Coral reefs worldwide are at risk due to climate change. Coral bleaching is becoming increasingly common and corals that survive bleaching events can suffer from temporary reproductive failure for several years. While water temperature is a key driver in causing coral bleaching, other environmental factors are involved, such as solar radiation. We...

Coral reefs are being degraded at unprecedented rates and decisive intervention actions are urgently needed to help them. One such intervention in aid of reefs is coral cryopreservation. Although the cryopreservation of coral sperm and larvae has been achieved, preservation of coral fragments including both its tissue and skeleton, has not. The goa...

The Persian Gulf is a thermally extreme environment in which reef corals have adapted to survive through temperature ranges that would be lethal to corals from other regions. Despite offering a unique opportunity to better understand how corals from other regions may adapt in the future, through a changing climate, much of the Gulf coral and fish c...

Long-term survival of coral reefs around the world is threatened by local and global stressors. However, modern reproductive technologies may offer solutions to save coral genetic and biological diversity. Cryopreservation can store genetic material safely for years and potentially even centuries, thus providing present and future restoration optio...

The biodiversity of marine fishes is threatened globally by climate change and other anthropogenic activities, particularly in coral reef ecosystems. We present a simple, field-hardy method to cryopreserve marine fish gonads, targeting spermatogonial cells (undifferentiated diploid germ cells) with the ultimate goal of permitting recovery of threat...

Sessile invertebrates often engage in synchronized spawning events to increase likelihood of fertilization. Although coral reefs are well studied, the reproductive behavior of most species and the relative influence of various environmental cues that drive reproduction are not well understood. We conducted a comparative examination of the reproduct...

Coral reefs worldwide are at risk due to climate change. Coral bleaching is becoming increasingly common and corals that survive bleaching events can suffer from temporary reproductive failure for several years. While water temperature is a key driver in causing coral bleaching, other environmental factors are involved, such as solar radiation. We...

Anthropogenic stressors threaten reefs worldwide and natural in situ coral reproduction may be inadequate to meet this challenge. Land-based culture can provide increased coral growth, especially with microfragments. We tested whether culture methods using different algal fouling communities could improve the growth and health metrics of microfragm...

Photosynthetic dinoflagellates that live in symbiosis with corals (family Symbiodiniaceae) are fundamental for the survival of coral reef ecosystems. During coral bleaching events, it is assumed that these symbionts remain available in the water column, in sediments, or are seeded from unbleached coral colonies. Yet, this hypothesis has not been ve...

Current seawater temperatures around the northeastern Arabian Peninsula resemble future global forecasts as temperatures > 35 °C are commonly observed in summer. To provide a more fundamental aim of understanding the structure of wild populations in extreme environmental conditions, we conducted a population genetic study of a widespread, regional...

Maintaining genetic diversity and biodiversity is key to sustaining healthy ecosystems and their capacity for adaptation. Assisted Gene Flow (AGF) is a management approach to translocate adaptive genes among populations to restore faltering and at-risk habitats, especially on coral reefs. Cryopreserved sperm can facilitate AGF via selective breedin...

The drastic decline in coral coverage has stimulated an interest in reef restoration, and various iterations of coral nurseries have been used to augment restoration strategies. Here we examine the growth of two species of Hawaiian Montipora that were maintained in mesocosms under either ambient or warmed annual bleaching conditions for two consecu...

This protocol is used to obtain a clean isolate of Symbiodiniaceae extracted from their coral hosts. The freshly isolated symbionts can then be cryopreserved or used for other experiments. This protocol is targeted towards Symbiodiniaceae that we are currently not able to maintain in culture conditions (e.g., most Cladocopium species), but can be u...

Provides a summary of the status of coral reefs of the ROPME Sea Area (Persian/Arabian Gulf, Sea of Oman and western Arabian Sea) in 2020 based on survey data from the 1990s onward.

Early research into coral reproductive biology suggested that spawning synchrony was driven by variations in the amplitude of environmental variables that are correlated with latitude, with synchrony predicted to break down at lower latitudes. More recent research has revealed that synchronous spawning, both within and among species, is a feature o...

Ocean warming, fueled by climate change, is the primary cause of coral bleaching events which are predicted to increase in frequency. Bleaching is generally damaging to coral reproduction, can be exacerbated by concomitant stressors like ultraviolet radiation (UVR), and can have lasting impacts to successful reproduction and potential adaptation. W...

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-021-03889-w

Given the current natural and anthropogenic threats facing Qatar's marine environment and the consequential expected decline in ecosystem services, this paper examines the potential application of the Ecosystem Services-EBM framework developed by Granek et al. (2010) to sustainably manage Qatar's coral reef and seagrass bed ecosystems. Using interv...

On the evenings of June 11 and 12, 2019, 5 and 6 days before full moon, broadcast spawning by four echinoderm species and two mollusc species was observed on the Marsa Shagra reef, Egypt (25° 14′ 44.2" N, 34° 47′ 49.0" E). Water temperature was 28 °C and the invertebrates were observed at 2–8 m depth. The sightings included a single basket star Ast...

The advent of high throughput sequencing technologies provides an opportunity to resolve phylogenetic relationships among closely related species. By incorporating hundreds to thousands of unlinked loci and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), phylogenomic analyses have a far greater potential to resolve species boundaries than approaches that r...

Coral reefs are facing global challenges, with climate change causing recurrent coral bleaching events at a faster rate than corals may be able to recover from, and leading to an overall decline of coral cover and shifts in communities across the tropics. Scleractinian corals are ecosystem builders that provide a habitat for numerous marine species...

The discovery of multi-species synchronous spawning of scleractinian corals on the Great Barrier Reef in the 1980s stimulated an extraordinary effort to document spawning times in other parts of the globe. Unfortunately, most of these data remain unpublished which limits our understanding of regional and global reproductive patterns. The Coral Spaw...

Coral spawning is a fundamental process in the preservation of coral reef systems. However, reproductive information is still rare for many coral species and across a number of locations. No reproductive information is yet available from the western coast of the central and southern Red Sea. We document here the daytime spawning of Pocillopora verr...

The declining reproductive viability of corals threatens their ability to adapt to changing ocean conditions. It is vital that we monitor this viability quantitatively and comparatively. Computer-assisted sperm analysis (CASA) systems offer in-depth analysis used regularly for domestic and wildlife species, but not yet for coral. This study propose...

Without drastic efforts to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate globalized stressors, tropical coral reefs are in jeopardy. Strategic conservation and management requires identification of the environmental and socioeconomic factors driving the persistence of scleractinian coral assemblages—the foundation species of coral reef ecosystems. Here, we...

The biodiversity of Red Sea corals captured the attention of some of the earliest European natural historians. Many of the first descriptions of tropical reef corals were based on Red Sea material. Modern approaches to resolve the notorious challenges of coral taxonomy have only recently been applied to Red Sea taxa. This chapter reviews current kn...

The Red Sea is one of the warmest and most saline seas on the planet. Yet, scleractinian corals have managed to flourish under these distinct conditions supporting one of the largest networks of coral reef ecosystems worldwide. Here, we summarize current knowledge on the ecophysiology of reef-building corals gained from 60 years of research in the...

Arabian Gulf coral communities are particularly known for their utmost tolerance and adaptation to region’s extreme environmental conditions. However, stress through increasing sea temperatures, salinities, sustained coastal development, etc., has resulted in shifts in reef communities across the region in recent years. We conducted a comprehensive...

Arabian Gulf coral communities are particularly known for their utmost tolerance and adaptation to region’s extreme environmental conditions. However, stress through increasing sea temperatures, salinities, sustained coastal development, etc., has resulted in shifts in reef communities across the region in recent years. We conducted a comprehensive...

Increasing seawater temperatures are being measured worldwide, causing coral bleaching events during which the symbiosis between the coral host and its symbiotic zooxanthellae is disrupted, and a global decline in reef corals. In the Arabian Gulf where water temperatures are naturally extreme with summer maxima at 35°C and above and winter minima a...

Artificial structures get introduced into the marine environment by accident (e.g., shipwrecks) or intentionally, for logistical (i.e., coastal protection), industrial (i.e., oil exploitation) or biological habitat enhancement (i.e., artificial reefs). Similarly to other types of man-made submerged structures, offshore oil and gas platforms provide...

Local-scale ecological information is critical as a sound basis for spatial management and conservation and as support for ongoing research in relatively unstudied areas. We conducted visual surveys of fish and benthic communities on nine reefs (3–24 km from shore) in the Thuwal area of the central Saudi Arabian Red Sea. Fish biomass increased with...

List of surveyed fish species, their assigned trophic groups, and “a” and “b” values for biomass calculations. List of all fish species found on the 9 study reefs, the families or sub-families they belong to, and the trophic groups to which they were assigned, with corresponding a and b values obtained from FishBase (2014) and used in biomass calcu...

List of commercial fish species observed and the families/subfamilies they belong to. A list of fish species that were observed during our surveys and that belong to 3 of the most commercially valued and heavily-targeted fishes by fishermen in Saudi Arabia (parrotfish, snappers, and groupers), and the families/subfamilies to which they belong.

List of benthic taxa observed on study reefs. List of benthic categories recorded on the 9 study reefs. The taxonomic sub-categories (mostly genera) are listed in the second column as recorded during the surveys. A total of 25 scleractinian genera were recorded, at least 5 soft coral genera (the sub-category “Xeniidae” may have included more than o...

Raw benthic cover data

Summarized fish biomass data. Mean and total fish biomass on the 9 study reefs in the central Saudi Arabian Red Sea expressed in mean kg/100 m2 (±SE). Each reef was surveyed using six replicate visual belt transects, three at 10 m and three at 2 m depth. “Habitat” indicates the location of each reef according to distance from shore, “Reef” is the n...

A list of all non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS), analyses of similarity (ANOSIM), and similarity percentage (SIMPER) analyses performed on fish and benthic data. A list of all non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS), analyses of similarity (ANOSIM), and similarity percentage (SIMPER) analyses performed on the fish and benthic data colle...

Raw fish data

Summary of observed benthic cover. Mean percent cover (±SE) of benthic categories recorded on the 9 study reefs in the central Saudi Arabian Red Sea. Reef names are shown as abbreviations in column headers and separated according to distance from shore. Data were collected on 10 m long transects at 10 m and 2 m depths using the line-intercept metho...

Coral reefs represent one of the most biologically and socioeconomically important natural assets in the Arabian region, particularly in Qatar. Stress through increasing sea temperatures and salinities, growing development, and other pressures, has resulted in shifts in reef communities across the region in recent years. Branching corals have disap...

Abstract. Recent coral spawning observations in the central Red Sea show that most scler- actinian species release their gametes in the spring, with a majority of species spawning in April. There is, however, a lack of reproductive data for several other coral species, as well as a general lack of data for other invertebrates. Here, we document the...

Coral spawning times have been linked to multiple environmental factors; however, to what extent these factors act as generalized cues across multiple species and large spatial scales is unknown. We used a unique dataset of coral spawning from 34 reefs in the Indian and Pacific Oceans to test if month of spawning and peak spawning month in assembla...

Aim The Red Sea is characterised by a unique fauna and historical periods of desiccation, hypersalinity and intermittent isolation. The origin and contemporary composition of reef‐associated taxa in this region can illuminate biogeographical principles about vicariance and the establishment (or local extirpation) of existing species. Here we aim to...

A new scleractinian coral species, Cyphastrea kausti sp. n., is described from 13 specimens from the Red Sea. It is characterised by the presence of eight primary septa, unlike the other species of the genus, which have six, ten or 12 primary septa. The new species has morphological affinities with Cyphastrea microphthalma, from which it can be dis...

Coral spawning in the northern Gulf of Aqaba has been reported to be asynchronous, making it almost unique when compared to other regions in the world. Here, we document the reproductive condition of Acropora corals in early June 2014 in Dahab, in the Gulf of Aqaba, 125 km south of previous studies conducted in Eilat, Israel. Seventy-eight percent...

The monospecific scleractinian coral genus Sclerophyllia Klunzinger, 187956. Klunzinger, C. B. (1879). Die Korallenthiere des Rothen Meeres, 3. Theil: Die Steinkorallen. Zweiter Abschnitt: Die Asteraeaceen und Fungiaceen, Berlin: Gutmann.View all references was originally described from Al-Qusayr (Egypt) in the Red Sea based on a series of solitary...

Early work on coral reproduction in the far northern Red Sea suggested that the spawning times of ecologically abundant species did not overlap, unlike on the Great Barrier Reef where many species spawn with high synchrony. In contrast, recent work in the northern and central Red Sea indicates a high degree of synchrony in the reproductive conditio...

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00338-014-1186-6

A new scleractinian coral species, Pachyseris inattesa sp. n., is described from the Red Sea. Despite a superficial resemblance with some species in the agariciid genus Leptoseris with which it has been previously confused, P. inattesa sp. n. has micro-morphological characters typical of the genus Pachyseris. This genus, once part of the Agariciida...

Recent advances in scleractinian systematics and taxonomy have been achieved through the integration of molecular and morphological data, as well as rigorous analysis using phylogenetic methods. In this study, we continue in our pursuit of a phylogenetic classification by examining the evolutionary relationships between the closely related reef cor...