''Porites nodifera'', also known as dome coral, is a species of

stony coral Scleractinia, also called stony corals or hard corals, are marine animals in the phylum Cnidaria that build themselves a hard skeleton. The individual animals are known as polyps and have a cylindrical body crowned by an oral disc in which a ...

in the

Poritidae Poritidae is a family of stony corals. Members of the family are colonial hermatypic (reef-building) corals. They are variable in size and form but most are massive, laminar or ramose as well as branching and encrusting. The corallites are compa ...

family. It was first described by

Carl Benjamin Klunzinger Carl Benjamin Klunzinger (18 November 1834, in Güglingen – 21 June 1914, in Stuttgart) was a German physician and zoologist. He studied medicine at the Universities of Tübingen and Würzburg, afterwards attending lectures on geology and ...

, a German physician and zoologist active in the Red Sea region in the 1860s, and classifying its species in the 1870s and 1880s.

Appearance

''Porites nodifera'' have a hard substrate and grow in column-like structures toward the surface of the water. The surface of each column tends to take on a relatively flat, circular shape and the coral has a fairly smooth surface. Overall, the color of the coral ranges from a dark brown to a light brown. It takes on a similar appearance to ''Porites harrisoni'', which is a popular ''Porites'' species that is also found in the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...

; however, Porites ''nodifera'' tend to form columns that are substantially thicker in comparison.

Distribution

''Porites nodifera'' is native to the northwestern Indian Ocean, including the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...

Gulf of Aden The Gulf of Aden ( ar, خليج عدن, so, Gacanka Cadmeed 𐒅𐒖𐒐𐒕𐒌 𐒋𐒖𐒆𐒗𐒒) is a deepwater gulf of the Indian Ocean between Yemen to the north, the Arabian Sea to the east, Djibouti to the west, and the Guardafui Channe ...

, and

. It is found in shallow water, generally at depths less than , but up to deep. It is tolerant of salinities of up to 48% and therefore is very common in areas of high salinities where sea grasses also dominate the habitat. Salinity is an ecological factor which limits the lower zones of coral reefs so the species is able to dominate the lowest zones of the Dahab Reef in Egypt in particular, forming a considerable single species stand. There is only one species in this area that co-exists in the lowest zone of the reef slope in very sparse numbers; millepora sp. Porites nodifera can also be found in areas of normal salinities (40-42%), but does not tend to dominate these zones because of interspecific competition from a variety of other coral species. In the Persian Gulf, ''Porites nodifera'' and other ''

Porites ''Porites'' is a genus of stony coral; they are small polyp stony (SPS) corals. They are characterised by a finger-like morphology. Members of this genus have widely spaced calices, a well-developed wall reticulum and are bilaterally symmetric ...

'' species are the dominant corals present. This may be as a result of

coral bleaching Coral bleaching is the process when corals become white due to various stressors, such as changes in temperature, light, or nutrients. Bleaching occurs when coral polyps expel the zooxanthellae (dinoflagellates that are commonly referred to as alg ...

affecting ''

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 ...

'' coral species to a greater extent, and ''Porites'' filling in resulting gaps in the reef.

Arabian Yellow Band Disease

''Porites nodifera'' can become infected with a disease known as Arabian Yellow Band Disease, also referred to as AYBD, in their lifetime as it common amongst several coral species in the Persian Gulf. Species who contrast AYBD are seen having a yellow band encompassing the coral. This yellow band encroaches on uninfected tissue, thereby killing the healthy tissue. Corals, especially those of the ''Porites nodifera'' species, are able to overcome AYBD as it is often seen to halt its manifestation and become inactive prior to infecting the entire coral, allowing the coral to rejuvenate itself by building new skeletons.

Conservation

This coral is an

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 ...

Least concern species A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

currently. The most important known threat for this species is the extensive reduction of coral reef habitat due to a combination of threats, including

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

and

ocean acidification Ocean acidification is the reduction in the pH value of the Earth’s ocean. Between 1751 and 2021, the average pH value of the ocean surface has decreased from approximately 8.25 to 8.14. The root cause of ocean acidification is carbon dioxid ...

. In 2020, a study conducted in the Red Sea suggested that this species has a high tolerance to the increasing environmental temperature, and perhaps, will be used by other species as a refuge due to this ability.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3951633 Poritidae Cnidarians of the Indian Ocean Fauna of the Red Sea Marine fauna of Asia Marine fauna of Western Asia Gulf of Aden Persian Gulf Least concern biota of Asia Corals described in 1879 Taxa named by Carl Benjamin Klunzinger