Please note, this National Red List website contains a subset of data whilst we transition to national focal point driven data uploads. We thank you for your patience with this and welcome national contributors to get in touch to update their national dataset. Terms of Use including citation guidance are found here.

The previous dataset is available via: https://archive.nationalredlist.org/. This site is no longer updated but can help with most enquiries whilst we focus on redevelopment.

NRLD - 329946 | Porites lobata

Assessment ID
329946
Taxon name
Porites lobata
Dana, 1846
Uploaded by
National Red List Database
Taxonomic information
Scientific name
Porites lobata
Dana, 1846
Assessed taxon level
Species
Higher level taxonomic groupings
Invertebrates
Corals
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
cnidaria
Class
anthozoa
Order
scleractinia
Family
poritidae
Genus
Porites
Species
lobata
Species authority
Dana, 1846
Taxonomic notes and synonyms listed
Porites baueri and Porites excavata are now synonyms of this species.
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
Near Threatened
Abbreviated status
NT
Qualifying criteria (if given)
A2bc
Criteria system used
IUCN

(see Assessment details)

Assessment rationale/justification
This stony coral is common and can be a dominant species along both coasts of the UAE. It can survive sedimentation and has low susceptibility to bleaching, but other species of Porites are particularly susceptible to disease and extensive reduction of coral reef habitat due to a combination of threats. This species is among the most common corals in Fujairah and occurs along the entire coast of the UAE, but becomes less common to the west. Species-specific population trend data are not available and therefore are based on the data available for the genus. Despite the relatively low susceptibility to bleaching, the most recent bleaching event (2017) resulted in over 75% mortality of Porites in shallow-water habitats of Abu Dhabi. Elsewhere, however, Porites are in better shape. For example, Porites species are relatively stable in Dubai. In Fujairah, Porites species are increasing, likely recovering from an earlier decline after a massive harmful algal bloom and cyclone in 2007-2008. Although recent (post-2011) data are limited, there have been no major disturbances since then. As this species is more abundant in areas that are improving in status, it is suspected that overall declines in the UAE are likely approaching but not exceeding 30% over three generations (1989-2019). Therefore, it is listed as Near Threatened under criterion A2bc. No regional adjustment is made to the Near Threatened 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 is reported from UAE waters in both the Gulf and Sea of Oman (Riegl et al. 2012, Grizzle et al. 2016).Elsewhere, this species 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 is frequently a dominant species of back reef margins, lagoons and some fringing reefs, and generally can be found to depths of 30 m. It is one of the predominant framework builders, sometimes building monospecific reef frameworks or contributing to pocilloporid reef building (Glynn 2001). It is a relatively slow-growing species with reported growth rates of 8.4 mm/year in Costa Rica and 8.1 mm/year in the Galápagos; however, it can grow as fast as 14 to 19 mm/year during the first few years (Guzmán and Cortes 1993, Cortés and Guzmán 1998, Guzmán and Cortés 1989). This species utilizes a gonochoristic reproductive strategy (except from Caño Island, Costa Rica), and is presumably a broadcaster spawner (Glynn et al. 1994). Glynn et al. (1994) suggested that eastern Pacific populations appeared to be reproductively active over multiple annual intervals, including periods of relatively low temperature. According to Glynn et al. (1994), fecundity can vary between regions; P. lobata has higher fecundities at Caño Island, Costa Rica, and Uva Island, Panama, than in the Galápagos Islands, where water temperatures are lower and more seasonally variable. Moreover, Glynn et al. (1994) suggest that P. lobata reproduces twice per year in thermally high and stable environments. Fecundity of this coral appears to benefit from moderate sea warming events, but may decline dramatically during unusually strong thermal anomalies (Glynn et al. 1994). After 1983, observations of sexual recruitment have been rare to infrequent in the eastern Pacific; however sexual recruitment has been observed in some areas of the Galápagos Islands (Glynn et al. 1994). The almost complete absence of sexual recruitment for this species in the eastern Pacific may be due to high larval mortality in the water column; as well as increased levels of competition with benthic alga, and increased densities of grazers and bioeroders following the 1982-83 El Niño event (Glynn et al. 1994).Porites lobata can also reproduce asexually by fragmentation (Guzmán and Cortés 1989, Cortés and Guzmán 1998, Cortés and Jiménez 2003). In the eastern Pacific the incidental feeding activities of the triggerfish Pseudobalistes naufragium can generate fragments that survive to form new colonies (Guzmán and Cortés 1989, Cortés and Guzmán 1998, Glynn et al. 1994). This form of fragmentation is common in Costa Rica and Panama, but uncommon in the Galápagos Islands (Glynn et al. 1994). Fragmentation also occurs by initial weakening of colonies by bioeroders; P. lobata colonies possess high densities of boring bivalves (Lithophaga spp.), which erode the skeletal structure, a process that can also lead to fragmentation (Cortés and Jiménez 2003, Glynn et al. 1994).At least eight fish species feed on live corals, with their feeding strategies ranging from removing mainly live tissue and causing little damage to the skeleton, to abrading or breaking apart colonies in the feeding process, such as during feeding of Arothron meleagris and Pseudobalistes naufragium (Guzmán and Cortes 1989, Glynn 2001). It is commonly grazed by the puffer Arothron meleagris (Guzmán and Robertson 1989, Glynn et al. 1994).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).The genus is not particularly susceptible to bleaching, but is more prone to disease than many other corals. Coral disease has emerged as a serious threat to coral reefs worldwide and is 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 Great Barrier Reef 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.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. In addition to global climate change, corals are also threatened by a number of localized threats. 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.
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.