''Acropora hyacinthus'' is a species of

Acropora ''Acropora'' is a genus of small polyp stony coral in the phylum Cnidaria. Some of its species are known as table coral, elkhorn coral, and staghorn coral. Over 149 species are described. ''Acropora'' species are some of the major reef corals r ...

described from a specimen collected in Fiji by

James Dwight Dana James Dwight Dana Royal Society of London, FRS FRSE (February 12, 1813 – April 14, 1895) was an American geologist, mineralogist, volcanologist, and zoologist. He made pioneering studies of mountain-building, volcano, volcanic activity, and the ...

in 1846. It is thought to have a range that includes the Indian Ocean, the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

waters, southeast Asia, Japan, the

East China Sea The East China Sea is an arm of the Western Pacific Ocean, located directly offshore from East China. It covers an area of roughly . The sea’s northern extension between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula is the Yellow Sea, separated b ...

and the western Pacific Ocean. It lives on shallow reefs on upper reef slopes, and is found from depths of 1–25 m.

Crown-of-thorns starfish The crown-of-thorns starfish (frequently abbreviated to COTS), ''Acanthaster planci'', is a large starfish that preys upon hard, or stony, coral polyps (Scleractinia). The crown-of-thorns starfish receives its name from venomous thorn-like spine ...

preferentially prey upon ''Acropora'' corals.

Description

''Acropora hyacinthus'' occurs in plate- or table-shaped wide colonies that consist of a number of thin branches in a lattice structure. It has strongly inclined branchlets. ''A. hyacinthus'' has axial dominant branches, i.e. each branch has a large dominant axial corallite with much smaller cup-shaped radial corallites. The corallites on specimens of ''Acropora hyacinthus'' are often darker than the main branch structure. The species looks similar to many tabular Acropora species and is often misidentified in the field. File:Acropora hyacinthus, Kelso Reef.jpg File:Acropora hyacinthus, NPS.jpg File:Acropora hyacinthus, Poruma 2.jpg

Growth rate

Branching corals of the genus Acropora are among the fastest-growing taxa on most coral reefs. A. hyacinthus, average growth rates range from \3 to 10 cm diameter increase per year, with much of this variation thought to be a response to temperature, in addition to competition and other abiotic and biotic factors (Tomascik et al. 1996; Wakeford et al. 2008;Linares et al. 2011).

Distribution

Like most corals, ''Acropora hyacinthus'' is classed as a

data deficient A data deficient (DD) species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as offering insufficient information for a proper assessment of conservation status to be made. This does not necessaril ...

species on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

, but it is believed that its population is decreasing in line with the global decline in reefs, and it is listed under Appendix II of CITES. Figures of its population are unknown, but is likely to be threatened by the global reduction of coral reefs, the increase of temperature causing coral bleaching, climate change, human activity, the crown-of-thorns starfish (''Acanthaster planci'') and disease. It occurs at depths from on the upper slopes of shallow reefs. It occurs in the Indian Ocean, the Indo-Pacific waters, southeast Asia, Japan, the East China Sea, Australia, and the western Pacific Ocean.

Taxonomy

The species was originally described by

in 1846 as ''Madrepora hyacinthus''. Currently this species is considered to be a species complex, with many of the synonyms being called into question.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3939008 Acropora Animals described in 1971