Mass synchronous spawning described on the Great Barrier Reef
A paper in Science reports that many coral species across the Great Barrier Reef release gametes together over a few nights each year, a few nights after a full moon in late spring and early summer. The finding converted coral reproduction from something assumed to be continuous and diffuse into an annual, predictable, observable event — which is why every larval-propagation restoration method in use today depends on knowing this calendar.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Mass coral spawning · ecological phenomenon · Global tropical reefs; timing local · not located
- Great Barrier Reef · geographic_feature · Australia · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Mass Spawning in Tropical Reef Corals
Many scleractinian species on the Great Barrier Reef release gametes in synchrony over a few nights each year, a few nights after a full moon in late spring and early summer. V55 verification basis: not consulted; the paper and its finding are stated from the producing model's knowledge, and the number of species reported is deliberately not quoted.
Science (AAAS), Harrison, Babcock, Bull, Oliver, Wallace and Willis · 1984 · Partly verified
Harrison, P.L. et al. (1984), Science vol. 223 — the first description of multi-species synchronous coral spawning on the Great Barrier Reef.
Recorded on Mass coral spawning
- The Great Barrier Reef is inscribed on the World Heritage List
- Mass synchronous spawning described on the Great Barrier Reef
- The Long-Term Monitoring Program begins annual reef surveys
- A measured decline in Great Barrier Reef coral calcification is published
- Twenty-seven years of monitoring show coral cover roughly halved
- Mass bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef
- A second consecutive year of mass bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- A second consecutive year of mass bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef · 2017
- Mass bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef · 2016-03 to 2016-04
- Twenty-seven years of monitoring show coral cover roughly halved · 2012
- A measured decline in Great Barrier Reef coral calcification is published · 2009-01
- The Long-Term Monitoring Program begins annual reef surveys · 1985
- The Great Barrier Reef is inscribed on the World Heritage List · 1981