ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Coral Reef Research
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1646721
Multi-specific coral spawning and monsoonal transitions: assemblage-level observations from Baa Atoll, Maldives
Provisionally accepted
- Reefscapers, Male, Maldives
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Coral reefs support a vast diversity of marine life but are increasingly threatened by anthropogenic activities. Coral taxa differ in their vulnerability to these disturbances. To assess changes in coral community composition and its recovery potential, documenting sexual reproduction and understanding its environmental drivers are essential, as sexual reproduction is key for coral reef resilience. Here, we document the exact timing and reproductive strategies for 375 individual coral colonies across 28 species from 10 genera between February 2024 and April 2025 at a near-shore reef in Baa Atoll, Maldives. We identify two peak periods of multispecific spawning, coinciding with the monsoonal transition seasons. We note variations in spawning patterns within and between taxa, documenting the occurrence of extended breeding via asynchronous spawning of colonies within a species and split-spawning of individual colonies across lunar months and bi-annual seasons. Our results show that larger spawning events in a given month are significantly correlated with lower wind speeds, higher sea surface temperatures, and higher levels of solar insolation. These findings highlight the influence of environmental cues on the timing and extent of coral reproduction and provide the first detailed spawning records for several non-Acropora genera in the Maldives, contributing a critical baseline for future research.
Keywords: coral, spawning, Monsoon, Reproduction, coral reef, synchrony
Received: 13 Jun 2025; Accepted: 02 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Errington, Moody and Le Berre. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Amelia JF Errington, Reefscapers, Male, Maldives
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