Reproductive Trade-offs in Caribbean Corals: Plasticity Accelerates While Fragmentation Delays Sexual Maturity

Le résumé fourni par la source

Caribbean coral reefs face existential threats, with Acropora cervicornis populations declining by over 90% since the 1970s. While phenotypic plasticity appears to enhance immediate survival in these corals, its influence on reproductive capacity remains poorly understood. Using time-to-event analyses on 263 fate-tracked coral colonies across multiple Florida Keys reef sites over 42 months, we investigated the relationship between fragmentation, morphological plasticity, and sexual reproduction. Our findings reveal that breakage patterns result from more than environmental stochasticity alone—coral genotype significantly influences fragmentation susceptibility, with certain genotypes experiencing breakage in up to 100% of ramets. Primary branch breaks create a ”double negative” effect—simultaneously increasing mortality risk and delaying sexual maturity. Conversely, higher morphological plasticity in colony surface area to volume ratio significantly accelerates sexual maturation, potentially counteracting the negative effects of fragmentation. These results demonstrate a fundamental reproductive trade-off in A. cervicornis, where asexual reproduction through fragmentation undermines sexual reproductive potential by reducing colony size below critical thresholds required for maturation. Our study reinforces the hypothesis that fragmentation is a heritable trait subject to selection and identifies a mechanism through which plasticity may contribute to fitness beyond immediate survival. These insights have immediate applications for coral restoration efforts, suggesting that selecting for genotypes with lower breakage risk and higher plasticity could significantly improve long-term population recovery in this threatened foundation species.

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