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NRLD - 329972 | Montipora monasteriata

Assessment ID
329972
Taxon name
Montipora monasteriata
(Forskäl, 1775)
Uploaded by
National Red List Database
Taxonomic information
Scientific name
Montipora monasteriata
(Forskäl, 1775)
Assessed taxon level
Species
Higher level taxonomic groupings
Invertebrates
Corals
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
cnidaria
Class
anthozoa
Order
scleractinia
Family
acroporidae
Genus
Montipora
Species
monasteriata
Species authority
(Forskäl, 1775)
Location and scope
Specific locality or subnational name or regional name
United Arab Emirates (the)
Scope (of the Assessment)
National
Countries included within the scope of the assessment
United Arab Emirates (the)
Country ISO code(s)
ARE
Does the assessment cover a marine EEZ area(s)?
Not_assigned
Conservation Status
Assessed as
Data Deficient
Abbreviated status
DD
Criteria system used
IUCN

(see Assessment details)

Assessment rationale/justification
This species has been reported from both coasts of the UAE, but its presence has been questioned in the Gulf. The most important known threat for acroporids is extensive reduction of coral reef habitat due to a combination of threats. In general, coral habitat in UAE has been declining, and records of Montipora have decreased. As the distribution of this species in UAE waters is highly uncertain, it is listed as Data Deficient. However, given the extensive threats to acroporid corals in UAE, and their resultant decline, if this species is determined to occur in the UAE, a reassessment would be necessary. No regional adjustment is made to the Data Deficient listing.
Assessment details
Year assessed
2019
Assessors/contributors/reviewers listed
UAE National Red List Workshop
Criteria system used
IUCN
Reference for methods given
IUCN. 2012. IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria: Version 3.1, Second edition. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. iv + 32pp pp. And IUCN. 2012. Guidelines for Application of IUCN Red List Criteria at Regional and National Levels: Version 4.0. Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK: IUCN. iii + 41pp.
Further information
Endemism (according to assessment)
Endemic to region
Not assigned
Taxon distribution as listed in assessment
This species was reported from the Gulf (Veron 2000) but its presence there has been questioned (Riegl et al. 2012). It has more recently been reported from Fujairah (R. Bento pers. comm. 2019) and unidentified species of Montipora were reported from UAE waters in the Sea of Oman (Foster et al. 2011). Therefore, the presence of this species in UAE waters is possible but unconfirmed. Elsewhere, it is widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific.
Is there a map available in assessment?
Yes
Habitat and systems
Ecological system type
Terrestrial
Not_assigned
Freshwater
Not_assigned
Marine
Yes
Habitat
Habitat details as listed in assessment
This species occurs in shallow, tropical reef environments. It is found mostly on upper reef slopes, but also grows deeper. This species is found to at least 40 m.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. Total longevity is not known, but likely to be more than ten years. Furthermore, based on average sizes and growth rates, we assume that average generation length is 10 years, unless otherwise stated. Therefore, any population decline rates for the Red List assessment are measured over at least 30 years.
Threats and conservation measures listed
Threats listed in assessment
In the Gulf, the major threats to corals include extreme and increasing temperature variability due to climate change, as well as direct destruction and increased turbidity caused by coastal construction (Riegl et al. 2012). Although bleaching thresholds in the Gulf are the highest recorded in the world (Riegl et al. 2012), bleaching events in the UAE have resulted in significant mortality (such as in 1996-1998, 2002, 2010 and 2017) and slow recovery (Burt et al. 2008). In Abu Dhabi, the most recent coral bleaching event resulted in nearly 95% of corals bleaching, and by April 2018, mortality reached 73% (Burt et al. 2019). This event resulted in mass mortality of even the more stress-tolerant corals such as poritids and merulinids (Burt et al. 2019). Coastal development, particularly large-scale offshore real estate developments and sedimentation associated with reclamation, has directly buried coral reefs in the Gulf (Burt et al. 2008, 2013; Burt 2014; Burt and Bartholomew 2019). In the Sea of Oman, UAE reefs have experienced major hurricanes and harmful algal blooms that caused high coral mortality and shifted community structure (Bauman et al. 2010, Foster et al. 2011).Globally, 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. The bleaching of coral reefs, which has become increasingly frequent since the 1970s, is related to the ongoing rise in ocean in temperatures as a result of global climate change. Bleaching events, leading to coral mortality, are predicted to become more frequent and severe. Species in the genus Montipora are susceptible to bleaching. However, this species is extremely widespread in tropical, subtropical habitats, and across a range of depths, providing a possible degree of resilience to threats relating to global warming. Species in the genus tend to be quite fast growing and reproduce asexually by fragmentation, so if they can re-establish after mortality, they can recover quickly.Other threats include predation by crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci), which have been observed preferentially preying upon members of this genus (Colgan 1987). These voracious predators of reef-building corals are found throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and the Red Sea. 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 have 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. Coral disease has emerged as a serious threat to coral reefs worldwide and a major cause of reef deterioration (Weil 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 et al. 2006). Increased coral disease levels on the GBR were correlated with increased ocean temperatures (Willis et al. 2004) 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. In the summer months of 2001/2002 and 2002/2003 a disease causing atramentous necrosis was observed on this species in the fringing reefs of Magnetic Island, Australia. The disease spread rapidly and was gone quickly causing elevated levels of mortality. Temperature-induced coral disease outbreaks represent an added problem for corals during the warmer summer months (Jones et al. 2004).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.
Publication
Ralph, G.M., Stump, E., Linardich, C., Bullock, R.W., Carpenter, K.E., Allen D.J., Hilton-Taylor, C., Al Mheiri, R., and Alshamsi, O. 2021. UAE National Red List of Marine Species: Reef-building corals, cartilaginous fishes and select bony fishes. 2021. Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.