About
Commonly known as the Cauliflower coral, Pocillopora fungiformis is only found in tropical waters off the coast of Madagascar in the Western Indian Ocean.
This species uncommon throughout its highly restricted range.
Coral reef habitat off the coast of Madagascar is known to be declining due to high levels of human impact as well as disease and warming waters with subsequent bleaching due to climate change.
In general, the major threat to corals is global climate change, in particular, temperature extremes leading to bleaching and increased susceptibility to disease, increased severity of ENSO events and storms, and ocean acidification. The severity of these combined threats to the global population of each individual coral species is not known.
- Order: Scleractinia
- Family: Pocilloporidae
- Trend: unknown
- Depth Range (m): 1 - 15
EDGE Score
Distribution
This species is only found in shallow, tropical waters off the coast of Madagascar in the Western Indian Ocean.
Habitat and Ecology
P.fungiformis prefers shallow reef environments where it is exposed to strong wave action and colonies can grow to 2m across by encrusting over existing substrate and forming lumpy or branching structures.
