Abstract
Some coral restoration efforts are involving cultivation of coral microfragments in land-based pools under controlled conditions until they reach viable size for outplanting. However, gaps in knowledge with these efforts include effects of changing pH on regeneration rates of tissue lesions and other physiological responses on different size fragments. To address this, two fragment sizes of Porites porites and Porites astreoides were artificially inflicted with lesions and incubated in two pH treatments to follow effects on recovery and physiological performance. Recovery was significantly reduced at reduced pH for P. porites in both fragment sizes; while recovery of P. astreoides was reduced only in the larger fragments. Different responses were also seen for Symbiodinium density and total protein with pH and fragment size. Effects on lesion recovery rate from pH and fragment size were species specific and may be related to morphology and/or energetic constrains.
Original language | American English |
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Pages (from-to) | 321-326 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Marine Pollution Bulletin |
Volume | 100 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 15 Nov 2015 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Samples were collected under permit # FKNMS-2013-106. This project was funded by the Florida Protect Our Reefs Grants Program ( POR2012-M5 ). The authors would like to thank Erich Bartels and Cory Walter for field support, Christina Kennedy and Joseph Mandara for laboratory assistance, Rebecca Hall for graphics support, and Dave Vaughan, Chris Page, and Mark Knowles for Mote Tropical Research Laboratory facilities support.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords
- Coral
- Fragment size
- Lesions
- PH
- Restoration