You are here:
Experimental Bleaching of a Reef-Building Coral Using a Simplified Recirculating Laboratory Exposure System
Citation:
BARRON, M. G., C. L. MCGILL, L. A. COURTNEY, AND D. T. MARCOVICH. Experimental Bleaching of a Reef-Building Coral Using a Simplified Recirculating Laboratory Exposure System. Journal of Marine Biology. Hindawi Publishing Corporation, New York, NY, 2010(415167):8, (2010).
Impact/Purpose:
To describe a simplified recirculating coral exposure system for laboratory testing of a diversity of species and morphologies of reef building corals under ecologically relevant conditions of temperature, salinity and solar radiation.
Description:
Determining stressor-response relationships in reef building corals is a critical need for researchers because of global declines in coral reef ecosystems. A simplified recirculating coral exposure system for laboratory testing of a diversity of species and morphologies of reef building corals under ecologically relevant conditions of temperature, salinity, and solar radiation is described. The system provides reproducible control of environmental parameters including temperature, salinity, and solar radiation. Experiments using the model reef building coral, Pocillopora damicornis, show temperature and solar radiation dependent changes in pigment, numbers of symbiotic algae, photosystem II yield, and tissue loss during exposure and recovery. The laboratory exposure system is adaptable for use in experimental bleaching with multiple species of reef building corals.
