Sexual Reproduction of Reef Corals and Application to Coral Restoration

Successful sexual reproduction is essential for the maintenance, recovery, adaptation, and evolution of reef-building scleractinian corals that create coral reefs. Sexual reproductive patterns have been well-studied for some of the more than 400 scleractinian species recorded on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), and much of this research has focused on the extraordinary synchronous annual mass coral spawning events that occur after full moon periods from October to December. However, other coral species are known to spawn gametes or release brooded planula larvae at other times of the year, and many species and important groups of corals remain largely or completely unstudied on the GBR and in many other reef regions. Knowledge of sexual reproduction, larval dispersal, and recruitment patterns is fundamentally important for understanding reef ecology and evolution; hence, further research is needed to document sexual reproductive patterns among a broader range of scleractinian taxa globally. This knowledge is also increasingly important for managing complex reef systems impacted by rapidly escalating pressures from natural and anthropogenic disturbances and for application to active interventions including coral restoration.