Significant drop of fertilization of Acropora corals in 1999. An after-effect of heavy coral bleaching?

In June 1999, after devastating coral bleaching in 1998, laboratory fertili zation of Acropora nasuta, one of the most abundant reef-building corals in Okinawa, Japan, decreased significantly from usual rates (>94%) to an aver age uf 42% at a sperm concentration of 10(5) ml(-1). Similar decreases were observed in four other mass-spawning acroporid corals. We also found a dec rease in sperm motility in the laboratory. A series of experiments to deter mine the effects of sperm concentration on fertilization rates revealed tha t sperm of 10(7) ml(-1) was needed to obtain a rate >80%. Sperm concentrati on in surface seawater during mass spawning was highest within 1.0 h of spa wning but decreased sharply thereafter These results suggest that gamete di lution plays an important role in limiting the fertilization of coral eggs in the yea. As successful fertilization appears to have been much lower in 1999, we suspect that production of new coral recruits was also reduced gre atly. Current and future sea-temperature increases thus pose a severe poten tial threat to coral reefs by increasing the frequency of coral bleaching a nd consequently leading to further declines of coral recruitment and hence, reef corals.