|Scientific Name:||Acropora valida|
|Species Authority:||(Dana 1846)|
|Red List Category & Criteria:||Least Concern ver 3.1|
|Assessor(s):||Richards, Z.T., Delbeek, J.T., Lovell, E.R., Bass, D., Aeby, G. & Reboton, C.|
|Reviewer(s):||Livingstone, S., Polidoro, B. & Smith, J.|
The most important known threat for this species is extensive reduction of coral reef habitat due to a combination of threats. Specific population trends are unknown but population reduction can be inferred from estimated habitat loss (Wilkinson 2004). It is widespread and very common throughout the Indo-west Pacific, therefore is likely to be more resilient to habitat loss and reef degradation because of an assumed large effective population size that is highly connected and/or stable with enhanced genetic variability. Although this species may be regionally extinct in the eastern tropical Pacific, this is portion of its range is considered to be extralimital. Therefore, the estimated habitat loss of 20% from reefs already destroyed within its range is the best inference of population reduction since it may survive in coral reefs already at the critical stage of degradation (Wilkinson 2004). This inference of population reduction over three generation lengths (30 years) does not meet the threshold of a threat category and this species is Least Concern. However, because of predicted threats from climate change and ocean acidification it will be important to reassess this species in 10 years or sooner, particularly if the species is also observed to disappear from reefs currently at the critical stage of reef degradation.
|Range Description:||This species is found in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, the south-west and north-west Indian Ocean, the Arabian/Iranian Gulf, the northern Indian Ocean, the central Indo-Pacific, Australia, Southeast Asia, Japan and the East China Sea, the oceanic west Pacific, the central Pacific, the northwestern Hawaiian Islands and Johnston Atoll, and the far eastern Pacific.|
Native:American Samoa (American Samoa); Australia; Bahrain; British Indian Ocean Territory; Cambodia; Christmas Island; Cocos (Keeling) Islands; Colombia; Comoros; Cook Islands; Djibouti; Ecuador; Egypt; Eritrea; Fiji; French Polynesia; Guam; India; Indonesia; Iran, Islamic Republic of; Iraq; Israel; Japan; Jordan; Kenya; Kiribati; Kuwait; Madagascar; Malaysia; Maldives; Marshall Islands; Mauritius; Mayotte; Micronesia, Federated States of ; Mozambique; Myanmar; Nauru; New Caledonia; Niue; Norfolk Island; Northern Mariana Islands; Oman; Pakistan; Palau; Panama; Papua New Guinea; Philippines; Qatar; Réunion; Samoa; Saudi Arabia; Seychelles; Singapore; Solomon Islands; Somalia; South Africa; Sri Lanka; Sudan; Taiwan, Province of China; Tanzania, United Republic of; Thailand; Tokelau; Tonga; Tuvalu; United Arab Emirates; United States Minor Outlying Islands; Vanuatu; Viet Nam; Wallis and Futuna; Yemen
|FAO Marine Fishing Areas:||
Atlantic – southeast; Indian Ocean – eastern; Indian Ocean – western; Pacific – eastern central; Pacific – northwest; Pacific – southeast; Pacific – southwest; Pacific – western central
|Range Map:||Click here to open the map viewer and explore range.|
In the Indo-West Pacific this species is locally common.
In the Eastern Tropical Pacific, this coral is only known from three colonies at Rocas del Horno, Gorgona Island, Colombia (Prahl and Mejia 1985, Guzman 1988, Glynn 1997). Acropora valida colonies have not been seen since the original discovery (8 September 1983) at Gorgona Island or anywhere else in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, despite targeted searches (Glynn 1988, 1997, 2000, and 2001).
The Gorgona Island (Colombia) population has been suggested as an extralimital population recruited from the Indo West Pacific (Guzmán 1988). According to Glynn (1997), there is no evidence that A. valida became established in the Eastern Tropical Pacific region during the 1982-83 ENSO event. This population was discovered in 1983, and Guzmán (1988) estimated that the colonies at that time were of the order of 5-10 years old.
There is no species specific population information available for this species. However, there is evidence that overall coral reef habitat has declined, and this is used as a proxy for population decline for this species. This species is more resilient to some of the threats faced by corals and therefore population decline is estimated using the percentage of destroyed reefs only (Wilkinson 2004). We assume that most, if not all, mature individuals will be removed from a destroyed reef and that on average, the number of individuals on reefs are equal across its range and proportional to the percentage of destroyed reefs. Reef losses throughout the species' range have been estimated over three generations, two in the past and one projected into the future.
The age of first maturity of most reef building corals is typically three to eight years (Wallace 1999) and therefore we assume that average age of mature individuals is greater than eight years. Furthermore, based on average sizes and growth rates, we assume that average generation length is 10 years, unless otherwise stated. Total longevity is not known, but likely to be more than ten years. Therefore any population decline rates for the Red List assessment are measured over at least 30 years. Follow the link below for further details on population decline and generation length estimates.
|Habitat and Ecology:||
This species occurs in shallow, tropical reef environments. It is found in a wide range of reef environments and rocky foreshores. It is found intertidally on the outer reef flat and subtidally on the reef edge and tops of submerged reefs (Wallace 1999). At Gorgona Island, Acropora valida was found in a rocky wall habitat (diabasic type) at approximately 10 m (Prahl and Mejia 1985). This species is found from 1-15 m.
General genus information: throughout its range, Acropora can be found on any stretch of reef and is often the dominant coral, especially along the reef front. Staghorn and plate forms flourish in sheltered areas, whereas clusters and semi-massive types can withstand more exposed conditions. Species that occur from the reef top to the reef slope become gradually more flattened with depth (Wood 1983).
Members of this genus have a low resistance and low tolerance to bleaching and disease, and are slow to recover. Glynn (1997) suggested that the disappearance of Acropora valida from Gorgona Island may have resulted directly from the 1982-83 ENSO, or from a secondary, minor mortality event. According to Glynn (1988), El Niño disturbance could have disastrous consequences for small populations of Eastern Pacific reef corals such as Acropora valida. Nevertheless, Zapata and Vargas-Ángel (2003) suggest that it is unclear whether the 1982-83 El Niño event drove A. valida to extinction in the Eastern Tropical Pacific because the colonies at Gorgona Island had a normal appearance when they were found in September 1983 (i.e., towards the end of the warming episode) by Prahl and Mejia.
Other threats: presumably climate change.
Acanthaster planci, the crown-of-thorns starfish, has been observed preferentially preying upon corals of the genus Acropora (Colgan 1987). Four disease records (Willis et al. 2004). Crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) (Acanthaster planci) are found throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and the Red Sea. These starfish voracious predators of reef-building corals, with a preference for branching and tabular corals such as Acropora species. Populations of the crown-of-thorns starfish have greatly increased since the 1970s and have been known to wipe out large areas of coral reef habitat. Increased breakouts of COTS has become a major threat to some species, and have contributed to the overall decline and reef destruction in the Indo-Pacific region. The effects of such an outbreak include the reduction of abundance and surface cover of living coral, reduction of species diversity and composition, and overall reduction in habitat area.
Acropora species are in the top three genera collected for the aquarium trade. This species is known in the aquarium trade (Delbeek pers. comm.). The total number of corals (live and raw) exported for this species in 2005 was 4,535.
In general, the major threat to corals is global climate change, in particular, temperature extremes leading to bleaching and increased susceptibility to disease, increased severity of ENSO events and storms, and ocean acidification.
Coral disease has emerged as a serious threat to coral reefs worldwide and a major cause of reef deterioration (Weil et al. 2006). The numbers of diseases and coral species affected, as well as the distribution of diseases have all increased dramatically within the last decade (Porter et al. 2001, Green and Bruckner 2000, Sutherland et al. 2004, Weil 2004). Coral disease epizootics have resulted in significant losses of coral cover and were implicated in the dramatic decline of acroporids in the Florida Keys (Aronson and Precht 2001, Porter et al. 2001, Patterson et al. 2002). In the Indo-Pacific, disease is also on the rise with disease outbreaks recently reported from the Great Barrier Reef (Willis et al. 2004), Marshall Islands (Jacobson 2006) and the northwestern Hawaiian Islands (Aeby 2006). Increased coral disease levels on the GBR were correlated with increased ocean temperatures (Willis et al. 2007) supporting the prediction that disease levels will be increasing with higher sea surface temperatures. Escalating anthropogenic stressors combined with the threats associated with global climate change of increases in coral disease, frequency and duration of coral bleaching and ocean acidification place coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific at high risk of collapse.
Localized threats to corals include fisheries, human development (industry, settlement, tourism, and transportation), changes in native species dynamics (competitors, predators, pathogens and parasites), invasive species (competitors, predators, pathogens and parasites), dynamite fishing, chemical fishing, pollution from agriculture and industry, domestic pollution, sedimentation, and human recreation and tourism activities.
The severity of these combined threats to the global population of each individual species is not known.
Included within Gorgona Natural National Park (IUCN category III). All corals are listed on CITES Appendix II. Parts of the species’ range fall within Marine Protected Areas.
Recommended measures for conserving this species include research in taxonomy, population, abundance and trends, ecology and habitat status, threats and resilience to threats, restoration action; identification, establishment and management of new protected areas; expansion of protected areas; recovery management; and disease, pathogen and parasite management. Artificial propagation and techniques such as cryo-preservation of gametes may become important for conserving coral biodiversity.
Having timely access to national-level trade data for CITES analysis reports would be valuable for monitoring trends this species. The species is targeted by collectors for the aquarium trade and fisheries management is required for the species, e.g., MPAs, quotas, size limits, etc. Consideration of the suitability of species for aquaria should also be included as part of fisheries management, and population surveys should be carried out to monitor the effects of harvesting. Recommended conservation measures include population surveys to monitor the effects of collecting for the aquarium trade, especially in Indonesia.
|Citation:||Richards, Z.T., Delbeek, J.T., Lovell, E.R., Bass, D., Aeby, G. & Reboton, C. 2014. Acropora valida. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.3. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 02 March 2015.|
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