Elkhorn coral

Range and habitat

Elkhorn coral live in shallow habitats, that give them abundant access to light. Characteristically found in shallow, turbulent water ranging from 1 to 5 meters (3 ft 3 in to 16 ft 5 in), Elkhorn coral thrive best in high-energy zones where wave action is frequent. Present locations of the Elkhorn coral include the southern coasts of Florida and the northern regions of the Gulf of Mexico.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

Diet and breeding

Zooplankton complete daily diel migrations. By concentrating their predation activities at night, Elkhorn coral expend less energy catching large amounts of prey.

The Elkhorn coral is a simultaneous hermaphrodite, meaning that in each coral colony both egg and sperm are produced. The gametes are released for only a few nights by broadcast spawning eggs and sperm into a water column.

In crisis

Scientists have estimated that between 1980 and 2006, when it was listed in the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the population declined by around 97%. In total, 80–98% of the Caribbean coral reef population has been lost. A longitudinal study done from 2005 to 2015 shows that the Elkhorn coral population had a proportional decline of 0.4–0.7 times in colony density across the entirety of its occupied range.

This decline indicates that despite conservation efforts, the population is still decreasing. The BRT determined that Elkhorn coral was not at risk for extinction, but could become so in the foreseeable future because its population sizes were low and the severity of threats was predicted to increase.

CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.

Branching acroporids are among the first corals to bleach in a marine heatwave and among the first to smash in a storm or under an anchor.

Elkhorn coral is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.

Sources

Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Elkhorn coral, Wikidata item Q163614. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.