[en] Colony morphology is among the best predictors of the scleractinian coral’s function in the reef ecosystem. However, morphological traits are categorical and to convert this information into a quantitative value remains a real challenge to quantify the influence of this parameter on ecosystem processes. Recently, the ratio between colony mass and surface area (CMA) has been proposed to represent a suitable proxy of species morphologies and their growth. Hypothetically, CMA could be used to assess a broad range of biological, ecological, and evolutionary processes in coral reef ecosystem. Here, we propose to test CMA as a predictor of coral morphology and focus on the intraspecific variation of this parameter. We used historical coral collection from the Museum of Zoology (National Taiwan University) and our own specimens collected from contrasting environments to establish a database of coral models using a high-resolution David 3D scanner. From these models, we extracted surface area and volume of the coral colonies. Colony mass was measured on a Mark S Bel balance. CMA was compared for its power in predicting species morphology with other traits such as skeleton density. Eventually, we tested the use of CMA at an intraspecific level to detect plasticity in growth rate. Our 3D models are available online (http://www.dipintothereef.com/corals.html) and constitute a valuable resource for estimating the roles of corals in the ecosystem.
