Mechanisms and potential immune tradeoffs of accelerated coral growth induced by microfragmentation.

ABSTRACT: Microfragmentation is the act of cutting corals into small pieces (~1 cm²) to accelerate the growth rates of corals relative to growth rates observed when maintaining larger-sized fragments. This rapid tissue and skeletal expansion technique offers great potential for supporting reef restoration, yet the biological processes and tradeoffs involved in microfragmentation-mediated accelerated growth are not well understood. Here we compared growth rates across a range of successively smaller fragment sizes in multiple genets of reef-building corals, Orbicella faveolata and Montastraea cavernosa. Our results confirm prior findings that smaller initial sizes confer accelerated growth after four months of recovery in a raceway. O. faveolata transcript levels assoc

SUBMITTER: Schlecker L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8973463 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature