On Fri, Sep 5, 2014 at 3:45 PM, Rudy Bonn <rudy_bonn@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hello coral listers, can someone tell me what the ideal temperature range
> for growth and reproduction in scleractinian, hermatypic corals.  Does it
> differ among species, depth range, turbidity, DO, salinity, and any other
> parameters that should be considered? Also, what is the thermal range for
> bleaching to likely begin?
> One earlier post stated that they recorded a temperature of 89 degrees @
> 30′ and that most of the species were showing signs of severe bleaching.
> Thanks for your consideration, Rudy Bonn.
>
>
> Rudy S Bonn
> Marine Educator/Biologist
> Miami, Florida

Date: Sat, 6 Sep 2014 14:33:24 -0400
From: Dennis Hubbard <dennis.hubbard@oberlin.edu>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Ideal Temperatures for Coral growth,
reproduction, and thermal lethal limits.
To: Rudy Bonn <rudy_bonn@yahoo.com>
Cc: “coral-list@coral.aoml.noaa.gov” <coral-list@coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Message-ID:
<CAFjCZNbwqyJ499eOqTXaR1TVEL1mWezg57PzhqDqMN1RzFd1hg@mail.gmail.com>
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Hi Rudy:

Great questions…. with few good answers. We used to talk about ideal
temperatures related to latitude. However, corals live comfortably in
the”coral triangle” at temperatures that would bleach Caribbean species.
Also, we found abundant corals on Easter Island a couple of degrees below
the lower threshold published for “any corals”…. and they bleached at
temperatures below the “comfortable” range for Caribbean species. I believe
that this tells us to be very careful when we use terms like “optimal” or
“suitable”. Regarding bleaching, I’d interpret the data to be saying that
vorals will bleach at some temperature above what they are used to.
However, this may also prove to be overly simplified – and (others, please
correct me if I’m wrong here) it could be the zooxanthellae and not the
corals that are the primary determinants. All this shows how little we
really “know”.

Best,

Dennis