Abstract
Xenogeneic and allogeneic encounters following aggregated and clustered settlements of coral larvae (planulae) may carry important ecological consequences in shaping coral reefs’ communities. However, larval settlement behaviors and settlement location choices in the presence of conspecifics or heterospecifics have not been examined in detail, due to a lack of experimental tools. One potential approach is the employment of vital staining of planulae with dyes that do not impair larval metamorphosis processes, are stable for prolonged periods, and do not diffuse to un-labeled counterpart planulae. For these purposes, we examined the use of neutral red (NR) dye, as an identification marker, on the planulae of Stylophora pistillata, a Red Sea branching coral species. To examine possible NR impacts on larval settlement in the presence of conspecific planulae, we followed the settlement ratios of kin, non-kin, and mixed assemblages, as a proxy for metamorphosis success. We found no differences in settlement rates of stained vs. unstained larvae, lack of stain diffusion to other larvae and that NR stain is maintained for more than a week under a still water regimen. Thus, staining with NR may serve as a useful experimental tool, opening new opportunities in studying larval settlement patterns in sessile marine organisms.
Highlights
Sets of three labeling treatments were established for planulae collected from the same/different maternal colonies, establishing the scenario where each Petri dish in a treatment contains 20 planulae of: (1) Neutral red un-stained controls (Figure 2a); (2) Neutral red labeled planulae (Figure 2b); (3) Neutral red mix treatment: 10 stained planulae originated from one colony and 10 un-stained planulae from a different colony
S. pistillata as a model case, of all and planulae settled and metamorphosed, we demonstrated staining planulae brooding specieslarvae with neutral is a safe
Using the settlement percentages as a proxy for the potentially harmful effects of the labeling, we found no significant differences in settlement percentages between stained and non
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. While xenogeneic encounters of corals always result in interspecific conflicts between the partners, including the development of necrotic zones between interacting young colonies (rejection phenomena; [6,15,16]), allogeneic encounters may result in rejection and tissue fusions between conspecifics, leading to the formation of chimeric colonies [6,15,16,17].
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