Quick hitter #4: Coral sex: some do it long and slow, others do it big and fast

Corals are promiscuous gamete-mixers. At certain times of the year, when the winds or temperatures or phase of the moon or ocean currents are right, they suddenly take part in a mass coral orgy where the seas are literally awash in coral sperm and female eggs. Now it turns out that corals have different mating strategies depending on their environment.

Study uncovers new fact of coral spawning

Calm Before The Spawn: Climate Change And Coral Spawning

"For decades researchers have known that corals synchronize their release of eggs and sperm into the water but were unsure of how and why. Robert van Woesik, a biologist at the Florida Institute of Technology, explains why corals spawn for just a few nights in some places but elsewhere string out their love life over many months.

The study shows that corals spawn when regional wind fields are light. When it is calm the eggs and sperm have the chance to unite before they are dispersed. Corals off the coast of Kenya have months of light winds so they can reproduce for much of the year. On the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, calm weather is short-lived and the coral reproductive season is brief."

The article linked here (a PDF) has a good picture of a coral spawning slick. And we thought young human males produced a lot of sperm...