Porites and Poritid Corals Codexery

Porites

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Porites is a genus of stony coral with small polyps, also called finger coral or hump coral due to its finger-like shape.[1] Calices are widely separated in this genus, a wall reticulum is well developed, and the corals exhibit bilateral symmetry.[1]

Scientific classification

  1. KingdomAnimalia
  2. PhylumCnidaria
  3. SubphylumAnthozoa
  4. ClassHexacorallia
  5. OrderScleractinia
  6. FamilyPoritidae
  7. GenusPorites

Named by Link, 1807

Sources: Wikipedia taxobox: Porites (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Quick Facts

Dominant species count
7
Oldest colony age years
700

Facts from the source article.

Biology and range

Porites corals are accurate recorders of past sea-surface conditions through oxygen isotope measurements of their aragonite skeleton.[2] When salinity declines, the coral contracts its polyps, reducing photosynthesis by symbiotic zooxanthellae.[3] Porites growth rates can be determined from annual skeletal rings; P. astreoides grows about 3.67 mm per year along its central axis.[4] Reefs across the globe contain corals belonging to the genus Porites.[5]

Within the Great Barrier Reef's Pandora platform, Porites is the prevailing taxon.[5] A high tolerance for salt is exhibited by certain Porites species; for instance, P. lutea in the Gulf of Thailand withstands daily tidal salinity fluctuations between 10 and 30‰.[3]

What the specialist sources record

The World Register of Marine Species lists Porites Link, 1807 as an accepted genus in family Poritidae, order Scleractinia, class Hexacorallia, with a marine environment.[6] GBIF accepts Porites Link, 1807 as a genus in kingdom Animalia, phylum Cnidaria, class Anthozoa, order Scleractinia, family Poritidae, and holds 146,637 occurrence records as of 7 October 2026.[7]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Porites" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Flora, "Surface Growth Rings of Porites lutea Microatolls Accurately Track Their Annual Growth", Northwest Science, 2003, p. 237–245 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Porites" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lough, "Climate records from corals", Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 2010, p. 318–331; Thompson, "Comparison of observed and simulated tropical climate trends using a forward model of coral δ18O", Geophysical Research Letters, 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Porites" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Moberg, "Effects of reduced salinity on the rates of photosynthesis and respiration in the hermatypic corals Porites lutea and Pocillopora damicornis", Marine Ecology Progress Series, 1997, p. 53–59 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Porites" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Elizalde-Rendon, "Growth characteristics of the reef-building coral Porites astreoides under different environmental conditions in the Western Atlantic", Coral Reefs, 2010, p. 607–614 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Porites" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Potts, "Dominance of a Coral Community in the Genus Porites Scleractinia", Marine Ecology Progress Series, 1985, p. 79–84 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. World Register of Marine Species, Porites (AphiaID 206485). CC BY 4.0. marinespecies.org
  7. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and occurrence index, Porites (taxon key 3250147). CC BY 4.0 (backbone); counts are facts. gbif.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Porites (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

More in Porites and Poritid Corals

Porites astreoidesPorites branneriPorites compressaPorites cylindricaPorites furcataPorites lobataPorites luteaPorites nodiferaPorites poritesStylaraeaThick finger coralGoniopora

Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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