Fragment growth-rates of six cultivated coral species : a reference framework for coral transplantation

Coral fragmentation isd a naturaS process of asexual reproduction in many coral species. Fragment size is belived to be an important factor of fragment survival at least in some species. The degradation of coral reefs and its poor recovery in some localities had brought different management plans in coral transplantation. In this study we examined in controlled conditions the variation in fragment growth rates of six different scleractinian species belonging to two different growth forms. We showed that fragment growth rates increased over our 6 month survey and that Pocillopora damicornis exhibited the highest growth rate followed in decresing order by S. pistillata, montipora sp., S. caliendrum, Echinopora sp. and T. reniformis wich may reflects their life history strategy, but also a difference in their surface-to-volume ratio as well as a differene in their skeletal density. Then, for each species, we determined whether growth rates might be affected by fragment size. We showed that there a positive significant relationship between growth rate and fragment size, depending, however on the interval time and the species considered. Differene in physiological resources allocation through a colony lifetime and genetic limitations in colony size may be related to our results. However, as in the wild many other parameters such as predation, can alsa play a role in fragment survivorship, we suggested that fragment size is an important parameter to take into account to successfully recover local coral population.