WAMSI 2 - Dredging Node - Project 7.2 - Effects of Dredging Related Pressures on Critical Ecological Processes for Coral - SYNCHRONY REVIEW, Western Australia

Project 7.2 Synchrony Review: The objective of this component is to identify the degree of synchrony of coral spawning in WA and whether there is temporal and spatial variation in the timing of spawning and whether there are any differences in spawning synchrony between turbid-water (typically inshore) and clearwater (typically offshore) coral communities. Spawning patterns in WA will be contrasted with spawning pattern in the GBR as part of this review. The purposes of the review is to allow the development of a protocol/procedure for assessing coral community reproductive output over the course of a year - i.e. how to collect and examine corals in the field (and sample corals for inspection under a microscope) and assess when coral spawning will occur. The protocol will also outline how to use this information (in combination with survey techniques) to produce a Coral Spawning Environmental Window Index to assess when coral spawning is likely to occur at a location and the significance of the spawning window given the local community composition (i.e. the risk of not observing the spawning window).