Data from: Signaling cascades and the importance of moonlight in coral broadcast mass spawning

Many reef-building corals participate in a mass-spawning event that occurs
yearly on the Great Barrier Reef. This coral reproductive event is one of
earth's most prominent examples of synchronised behavior, and coral
reproductive success is vital to the persistence of coral reef ecosystems.
Although several environmental cues have been implicated in the timing of
mass spawning, the specific sensory cues that function together with
endogenous clock mechanisms to ensure accurate timing of gamete release
are largely unknown. Here, we show that moonlight is an important external
stimulus for mass spawning synchrony and describe the potential mechanisms
underlying the ability of corals to detect environmental triggers for the
signaling cascades that ultimately result in gamete release. Our study
increases the understanding of reproductive chronobiology in corals and
strongly supports the hypothesis that coral gamete release is achieved by
a complex array of potential neurohormones and light-sensing molecules.