Acropora research

One of the Acropora palmata, Elkhorn coral, in the Villa Blanca reef in Cozumel.

Just by looking at the beautiful structures of a big, healthy Acropora coral, you can understand how important they are to the animals surrounding them. They provide structure for feather worms to attach, for fish like gobies to hide, as well as Trapezia crabs, Alpheus shrimp. Damselfish are so dependent on the Acropora that they can’t live without them, which we in biology call an obligate symbiotic relationship. 

Elkhorn coral crab (Domecia acanthophora), primarily found on Acropora.

In fact, Acropora corals are one of the most important reef-building species. Because of their fast growth, they have an amazing ability to provide structure and habitat for all reef-living species. However, more than 80% of the individuals have been lost in the Caribbean over the last 3 decades due to global warming, pollution, and disease (1). The urgency to protect these sensitive species, especially from white tissue disease, has made CCRRP partner with --Name of Adrians organization-- and take fragments to provide shelter and care for them in the restoration reef. These species are new to CCRRP, and the first place they were placed was 8 meters deep to avoid algae growth, but at that depth, they struggled with bleaching due to stress from other factors, so I wanted to test if they would show an indication of better health in shallower water, where the fragments were taken from originally and where most Acropora are naturally located.

Macro photography of acropora cervicornis illustrating healthy tissue with open and closed polyps.

By moving the corals and tracking their health over time, we can get information on how fast the fragments from this area can adapt to change and if fragments from different colonies are more or less resistant to this kind of change. The information will also help us understand where we should keep them in the restoration reef for optimal care and growth. The health was measured by registering if the polyps were open, how bleached the coral was according to coral watch's coral bleach chart and if there had been any new growth.

Picture of some of the 63 coals from 3 colonies used in my research.

So far I haven't had time to analyze the research, and put numbers on my observations, but what I have been able to see is that there is more algae growth closer to the surface, and one of the colonies seem to be less resistant to this, meaning that new fragments from that colony should be cleaned more often or placed deeper to avoid mortality. But even the coral that has struggled more with algae in the shallow site shows an overall better health than before moving them.

Sources:

1. Rodríguez-Martínez, R.E., Banaszak, A.T., McField, M.D., Beltrán-Torres, A.U. & Álvarez-Filip, L., 2014. Assessment of Acropora palmata in the Mesoamerican Reef System. PLOS ONE, 9(4), e96140. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0096140 link:(https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/authors?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0096140 )