A deeper look at EU coral population research
Although similar in size and density, regions of adult coral populations could be profoundly different in terms of recruitment and mortality rates. There is thus a need to investigate the effect of early post-settlement mortality on population size and structure in different habitats and ecosystems. The brightest marine minds from Australia and France teamed up under the PSICOPOPS project to do just that. Project researchers focused on several habitats in three regions: the Australian Great Barrier Reef, New Caledonia and French Polynesia. Recruitment, juvenile mortality and the growth of several coral types with different life-history traits were assessed. Pre-settlement processes include habitat selection by larvae, larval mortality and hydrodynamic process, while post-settlement events include competition, predation, facilitation and disturbance. The effect of these processes on the distribution and size of adult populations remains unclear, though larval supply was found to be a major factor.