{"id":1447,"date":"2024-02-01T21:23:11","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T21:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/?page_id=1447"},"modified":"2026-04-01T14:16:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T14:16:42","slug":"a-prolifera-mother-colony","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/bb-observations\/acroporoids-on-vauxhall-reef\/a-prolifera\/a-prolifera-mother-colony\/","title":{"rendered":"A. prolifera “Mother Colony” at Vauxhall"},"content":{"rendered":"

NAVIGATION
\nThis page is a sub-page of ObsFR-I<\/a>\/\u00a0The Acroporoids<\/a> \/ A. prolifera<\/a> \/ (This Page)
\non the website Barbados Fringing Reefs and Seagrass Beds<\/a> (www.versicolor.ca\/barbados).
\nGo to ObsFR-I\u00a0<\/a>to view a list of all pages and subpages under ObsI<\/small><\/p>\n

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The Acropora prolifera<\/em>\u00a0 “Mother Colony” – or perhaps better “Mother Colony Complex” is an area of approximately 40 sq meters at the beginning of the Reef Crest zone (re: John Lewis, 1960) at Vauxhall Reef,\u00a0 It\u00a0 consists of a complex of Acropora prolifera<\/em> (the “Fused Staghorn Coral), Palythoa caribeana\u00a0<\/em>(a\u00a0 colonial zooanthid), and Millepora<\/em> species (stinging coral, poss 2 species here).<\/p>\n

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The “Mother Colony” observed on Mar 18, 2015.<\/strong>
Click on image for larger versions<\/em>
View more pics on iNaturalist, observation 19967147<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

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Reef Zonation at Vauxhall (from Lewis, 1960), and approx. distribution of A. prolifera<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

It is the most seaward location of A. prolifera<\/em> at this site.\u00a0 In general, the A. prolfera<\/em> colonies which collectively make up the “Mother Colony” have a very heavy set structure, with some newer younger branching colonies, all heavily fused together.\u00a0 There are scattered individual\u00a0 colonies in a fan-like sweep towards the shore and toward the south, i.e. though the D-P (Diploria -Palythora) and Reef Flat zones of Lewis 1960.<\/p>\n

My assumption\/hypothesis is that the original, founder hybrid between A. palmata<\/em> and A. cervicornis\u00a0 (<\/em>both of which occur further seaward on the Vauxhall Reef) first got established or took hold at this location\u00a0 –\u00a0 hence the “Mother Colony” descriptor – and that new, independent colonies\u00a0 have developed landward and southward through\u00a0 fragmentation and scattering by wave motion.<\/p>\n

I have attempted to\u00a0 document the sites of occurrence and approx. sizes of individual colonies of A. prolifera in this area every year since 2015 when I first observed them,\u00a0 except in 2021 and 2022 when we did not visit Barbados (re: Covid); and in 2016, the survey came to an abrupt end when\u00a0 my key equipment\u00a0 got swept out to sea.\u00a0 I am still in the process of posting these observations to an\u00a0 iNaturalist Project:\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Acropora prolifera on Barbados fringing reef<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

On the location of the Mother Colony<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Blue bubble shows GIS location of\u00a0iNaturalist Observation\u00a0198152986<\/a> (Mar 30, 2023).Click on image for larger version<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

I have been relying on interpretation of Google Earth images in combination with GPS locations recorded on an Olympus Tough TG4, and later an Olympus Tough TG6 to locate colonies. The Olympus GPS observations are ‘dicey’ depending on weather etc., and can take inordinate time to “lock” (e.g. see online\u00a0comment<\/a>).\u00a0 In other, land based studies I have found the location can be off by 10-15 meters. In combination with the Mother Colony being located in a generally very turbulent area, that has made determining the precise location challenging. Only in a set of photos taken on March 30, 2023 under very clear, relatively calm conditions, did I finally feel confident that I had located it accurately\u00a0 (see iNaturalist Observation\u00a0198152986<\/a>)’; the GPS location corresponded to a distinct triangular dark spot on Google Earth.<\/p>\n

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Arrow points to darkened triangular area of the Mother Colony. The N\/NE edge drops about 2 meters from the top of the colony to a hard\/sand-covered bottom\/channel between the breakwater and the Mother Colony<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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Area of Mother Colony, 40.94 sq meters,\u00a0 estimated in Google Earth<\/p><\/div>\n

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Google Earth image showing residual waves breaking over the Mother Colony (a—b), main wave front moves inshore<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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View across Mother Colony towards N\/NE and breakwater, Mar 30, 2023<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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Drone image showing A prolifera Mother Colony (Mo); individual colonies (Ap, examples); Z:yellow zooanthid-covered coral prometories.\u00a0 Image is a screen capture from drone video on YouTube<\/a> by the Wandering Bajans, May 7, 2022.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NAVIGATION This page is a sub-page of ObsFR-I\/\u00a0The Acroporoids \/ A. prolifera \/ (This Page) on the website Barbados Fringing Reefs and Seagrass Beds (www.versicolor.ca\/barbados). Go to ObsFR-I\u00a0to view a list of all pages and subpages under ObsI The Acropora … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":1677,"menu_order":10,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1447","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1447"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8431,"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1447\/revisions\/8431"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}