Staghorn Coral (Acropora cervicornis) Case Study
Home > Biodiversity Nature & People > Conservation Philanthropy > Grants > MBZF Grant 170514943
Continent: North America
Country: Belize
Grant Amount: $2,500
Awarded Date: June 01, 2017
Kathryn Lesneski
Boston University
5 Cummington Mall
Boston
MA
02215
United States
Tel: 6173536969
Mob:
Identifying bleaching-resistant colonies of the endangered staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis, in Turneffe Atoll, Belize for conservation and restoration
I will re-visit Acropora cervicornis colonies that have been previously identified, tagged, and tracked over 2 years near Calabash Caye, Turneffe Atoll, Belize, to assess their current health status. Then I will then take several fragments (<10cm long each) from each tagged colony at both the backreef and the forereef to place in a holding tank in the wet lab at the Calabash Caye Field Station (University of Belize). After a brief period of acclimation, I will subject the corals to acute heat stress trials, using a system of heaters and controlled outflows that I have built and optimized during previous expeditions. Corals will be assessed for their susceptibility or resistance to this heat shock, and thus bleaching, through a number of metrics, including RNA expression/transcriptomes, chlorophyll content, zooxanthellae density, and tissue color. I will link results from each fragment back to its wild colony. If I determine that fragments originating from certain colonies are able to withstand this heat shock better than others based on the metrics above, we can harvest a small amount of material from the original colonies to grow on nursery tables established near Turneffe Atoll, for future outplanting onto the reef, aiding population restoration.
The text and images for this case study are uploaded by the grant recipient to raise awareness of the conservation work being done. Through its website the Fund provides the platform, but is not responsible for text or image content of case studies. We would like to sincerely thank the recipient for uploading a case study.