Molecular assessment of Pocillopora verrucosa (Scleractinia; Pocilloporidae) distribution along a depth gradient in Ludao, Taiwan.

ABSTRACT: It can be challenging to identify scleractinian corals from the genus Pocillopora Lamarck 1816 in the field because of their large range of inter- and intra-specific morphological variation that co-occur with changes in the physical environment. This task is made more arduous in the context of a depth gradient, where light and water current could greatly affect the morphology of the corallum. Pocillopora verrucosa (Ellis & Solander 1786) in Taiwan was previously reported exclusively from shallow waters (<10 m in depth), but a recent observation of this species in the mesophotic zone (>40 m in depth) questions this bathymetric distribution. We used the mitochondrial open reading frame and the histone 3 molecular markers to investigate the vertical and horizontal spatial distri

SUBMITTER: De Palmas S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6204238 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature