A comparative study on sexual reproduction of scleractinian and alcyonacean corals

Brief description

This dataset contains a collection of sex-allocation, weight and height over a 4 year period (2011-2014) of Fungia concinna. In addition, this dataset contains a collection of oocyte measurements of two scleractinian corals, Acropora millepora and Fungia concinna, and one alcyonacean corals Lobophytum pauciflorum to identify the onset of gametogenesis.

Full description

This dataset contains a collection of sex-allocation, weight and height over a 4 year period (2011-2014) of Fungia concinna. Corals were collected over the sampling period and sex determined during the annual coral spawning event. After spawning weight and height were recorded and new corals were tagged before returning to a marked location. In addition, this dataset contains a collection of oocyte measurements of two scleractinian corals, Acropora millepora and Fungia concinna, and one alcyonacean corals Lobophytum pauciflorum to identify the onset of gametogenesis over a 13 months period, starting in January 2014 and ending in February 2015. During this period, coral tissue samples were collected once a month and samples for histology were promptly fixed for 24h in 4% formaldehyde solution. Histological sections were stained with Haematoxylin-Eosin and analysed for gonad development. Gonads were identified using a 10x magnification of a compound stereomicroscope. Only the diameter where nucleus was clearly visible was measured under appropriate magnification using the cellSens software (cellSens standard v1.8) to ensure that the full size of the oocytes was recorded. Gonads were grouped in different size classes relative to the final size of the oocytes. For A. millepora and L. pauciflorum the size groups were determined as following: Stage I oocytes (< 50 µm), Stage II oocytes (50 – 99 µm), Stage III oocytes (100 – 199 µm) and Stage 4 oocytes (> 200 µm). F. concinna oocytes were significantly smaller than Acropora and Lobophytum oocytes (p < 0.05). The size groups were therefore adjusted for this species: Stage I oocytes (< 25 µm), Stage II oocytes (25 – 49 µm), Stage III oocytes (50 – 74 µm) and Stage 4 oocytes (> 75 µm). In order to test for possible correlation of oocyte development with water temperature, data for daily average water temperatures at 6.1 m depth for the sampling period at Orpheus Island were downloaded from the AIMS data centre for relay pole 2 (https://apps.aims.gov.au/metadata/view/748ba679-92c6-4827-a46e-e7265323deb9). [URL corrected by data librarian]

Data files included in this dataset are as follows:

• Fungia_concinna_sex_weight_height_categories.xlsx (summaries of sex allocation, weight and height of tagged corals over the 4 year study period
• Fungia_concinna_sex_weight_height_categories.pzf (statistical analyses of Fungia concinna sex allocation, weight and height)
• OIRS monthly sampling.xlsx (oocyte measurements from all 3 coral species investigated for onset of gametogenesis over 13 months
• Oocyte Overview Combined.pzf (analysed oocyte measurements from all 3 coral species investigated)
• Lobophytum Oocytes.pzfx (analysed oocyte counts per size group in Lobophytum pauciflorum)
• Acropora Oocytes.pzfx (analysed oocyte counts per size group in Acropra millepora)
• Gametes_SexDetermination.png (histological overview of gamete production and size and time point of first observation in all 3 coral species studied)

Notes

This dataset contains 9 files in MS Excel (.xlsx), Prism (.pzfx and .pzf) format and Portable Network Graphics (.png) formats. MS Excel files are also saved in Open Document Format (.ods). Prism files can be viewed using the free Prism viewer, see http://graphpad.com/support/faqid/788/ for details.