On the other hand, A. prolifera could potentially persist through mild to moderate storm events due to its skeletal density and observed hardiness and continue to provide essential fish habitat and further reef recovery. Natural population recovery of Acropora palmata, A. cervicornis and their hybrid, Acropora prolifera, have fluctuated significantly after their Caribbean-wide, disease-induced mass mortality in the early 1980s. Growth rates (linear and maximum diameter) and survival of 712 colonies were monitored for one year examining the effects of genotype, depth and attachment method. Populations were reduced to a few surviving colonies or fragments that in many localities had to compete with encroaching algae due to a lack of herbivory because of overfishing and the mass-mortality of the black sea urchin Diadema antillarum (Lessios, Robertson & Cubit, 1984). Nevertheless, a posteriori comparisons of this interaction showed a significantly higher growth rate during winter/spring (for both species and in all sites) compared to summer/fall (Fig. The highly heat tolerant A. hyacinthus variant “HE” increased in area an average of 2.9% month −1 (0.03 cm average mean radial extension month −1 ). 2C). Recent significant recovery of several back reef populations of A. cervicornis and the F1 hybrid A. prolifera were observed and investigated for over three years in two reef localities in southwest Puerto Rico (Lucas & Weil, 2015). The combined impact of these stressors has produced drastic biological, ecological and structural consequences, leading to significant declines in live coral, community shifts and the collapse of the three-dimensional (acroporids) structure in many Caribbean and Indo-Pacific coral reefs (Aronson & Precht, 2001; Weil, Croquer & Urreiztieta, 2009; Hughes et al., 2018). Null distributions for univariate and multivariate analyses were constructed using 999 permutations of the residuals under a reduced model. Both taxa showed high growth rates averaging 37.2 cm/y for A. cervicornis and 31.2 cm/y for A. prolifera, which translates into colony-volumetric increases of up to 4 m3 per year (Fig. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. A. cervicornis presented two different growth morphologies (ecomorphs) in the area: one characterized by thin, long and slender, yellowish branches (Fig. By contrast, the three less tolerant species averaged 6.1% (0.07 cm average mean radial extension month −1 ). As such, these foundational species have received much attention from NOAA’s coral reef management plans, the Endangered Species Act and the IUCN Red list (Weil et al., 2002; Acropora Biological Review Team, 2005; Aronson et al., 2008). These investigations, along with results presented here, highlight the potential ecologically role that A. prolifera has in coral reef ecosystem recovery given the present state of coral reef ecosystems. A. prolifera was not marked because prior to this study and, also throughout, there was no conspicuous algal accumulation on A. prolifera branches, and marking the branches may have artificially allowed algae colonization near healthy tissue. These colonies grow 5-10 cm (2-4 inches) each year, reaching maximum size in 10 to 12 years. J Paleontol 40: 233–240. Live acroporid colonies suffered almost 100% mortality after the high thermal anomalies induced bleaching and disease outbreaks in 2005 and 2010. Other colonies in these areas have survived partial mortalities and disease since 2005, when they grew from new sexual recruits. Each site was visited monthly from September 2015 to August 2016. Volumetric growth for each colony was measured and photographed from the top and from the side with a 20-cm scale at the beginning and end of this study to obtain overall volumetric growth differentials and mortality areas. This factor was included in the model to evaluate whether the response variables considered in this study responded to clear changes of natural environmental conditions. Taxa (species) = fixed factor with two levels (A. cervicornis and A. prolifera). Acroporids are the fastest growing coral genus in both the Caribbean and the Indo-Pacific, providing the physical and biological foundation for many shallow water coral reef communities (Lirman, 1999; Aronson & Precht, 2001). 3). Many strategies have been implemented to foster new Acropora growth, but success is highly variable and generally site-specific. This has provided a rare opportunity to evaluate some of the interactions proposed in the literature related to the relationship between damselfish and acroporids, coral health and mortality, and growth of the genotypes in those environments. Healthy-looking colonies of similar size (1–2 m in diameter) were selected during preliminary observations one month prior to the commencement of this investigation (August 2015) and marked with a numbered tag on a rebar hammered into the adjacent sandy substrate. Restoration efforts have aimed to supplement Acropora population recovery with locally cultured, fragment-propagation activities (Young, Schopmeyer & Lirman, 2012). Growth rates were on average lower than those reported for nursery fragments, but higher than most of those reported for wild populations in the region. 1996; Wakeford et al. 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