''Stylophora pistillata'', commonly known as hood coral or smooth cauliflower coral, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

of stony

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secre ...

in the family

Pocilloporidae The Pocilloporidae are a family of stony corals in the order Scleractinia occurring in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Description Pocilloporids are colonial and most species are reef-building. They are very variable in size and shape, some being ...

. It is native to the Indo-Pacific region and is commonly used in scientific investigations.

Description

''Stylophora pistillata'' has broad, blunt-ended branches, and

colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...

become thicker and more submassive as they grow. The maximum diameter of a colony is about . The

corallite A corallite is the skeletal cup, formed by an individual stony coral polyp, in which the polyp sits and into which it can retract. The cup is composed of aragonite, a crystalline form of calcium carbonate, and is secreted by the polyp. Corallit ...

s (stony cups from which the polyps emerge) are conical or hooded and are sunk beneath the general surface. The columella (central column of the corallite) is solid and prominent, and the

septa The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is a regional public transportation authority that operates transit bus, bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly 4 million people ...

(stony plates forming the corallite wall) may be fused to the columella. There are six primary septa and sometimes six secondary ones. Colonies can be cream, pink, bluish or green.

Distribution

''Stylophora pistillata'' is widely distributed in the tropical and subtropical Indo-Pacific region. Its range extends from Madagascar, East Africa, 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''; ...

and the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bo ...

, through the Indian Ocean to northern Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, New Guinea, Japan and many island groups in the western and central Pacific Ocean. It is a reef-building species and favours exposed habitats with strong water movement. Its depth range is down to about .

Ecology

This coral provides a home to gall crabs, ''

Trapezia ''Trapezia'' is a genus of guard crabs in the family Trapeziidae. Like other members of this family, they live in association with corals, feeding on coral tissue and mucus, and defending the corals from predators, like starfish. It contains ...

'' crabs,

boring clam ''Tridacna crocea'', the boring clam, crocus clam, crocea clam or saffron-coloured clam, is a species of bivalve in the family Cardiidae. It is native to the Indo-Pacific region. It is occasionally found in the aquarium trade Huelsken, T., Keys ...

s, date mussels,

barnacle A barnacle is a type of arthropod constituting the subclass Cirripedia in the subphylum Crustacea, and is hence related to crabs and lobsters. Barnacles are exclusively marine, and tend to live in shallow and tidal waters, typically in erosive ...

Christmas tree worm ''Spirobranchus giganteus'', commonly known as the Christmas tree worm, is a tube-building polychaete worm belonging to the family Serpulidae. Anatomy and morphology Both its common and Latin names refer to the two chromatically hued spiral s ...

s and

damselfish Damselfish are those within the subfamilies Abudefdufinae, Chrominae, Lepidozyginae, Pomacentrinae, and Stegastenae within the family Pomacentridae. Most species within this group are relatively small, with the largest species being about 30 ...

. Some, such as the date mussels, are

parasites Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson ha ...

that bore into the coral structure and weaken the coral skeleton. However, boring clams bring fresh, oxygenated water into the colony which benefits the coral.

Status

The chief threats faced by corals in general are

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 ...

, with its associated sea temperature rise and increase in violent storms, and

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

, as well as an increase in

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 dioxi ...

and an increasing susceptibility to coral diseases. ''Stylophora pistillata'' is prone to

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 al ...

, a condition in which corals force out the beneficial

zooxanthellae Zooxanthellae is a colloquial term for single-celled dinoflagellates that are able to live in symbiosis with diverse marine invertebrates including demosponges, corals, jellyfish, and nudibranchs. Most known zooxanthellae are in the genus '' ...

from their tissues and become white and liable to die. However, this is a common species of coral with a wide distribution and may be more resilient than some less widespread coral species. It is collected for the

reef aquarium A reef aquarium or reef tank is a marine aquarium that prominently displays live corals and other marine invertebrates as well as fish that play a role in maintaining the tropical coral reef environment. A reef aquarium requires appropriatel ...

trade, with about 10,000 pieces being exported in 2005. The

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natur ...

has assessed its conservation status as being "

near threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q3334226 Pocilloporidae Corals described in 1797 Cnidarians of the Indian Ocean Cnidarians of the Pacific Ocean Taxa named by Eugenius Johann Christoph Esper