About me
Impact of Rubble Pile Recruitment on Coral Tree Nurseries
Location: East Ballroom
Mentor: Dr. Diego Lirman
I am currently observing how the presence of “rubble piles” on a sandy seafloor might increase fish and invertebrate recruitment. These rubble piles will be made of old coral plugs and coral skeletons. They are placed beneath floating coral trees to encourage nearby fish and invertebrates to graze on any algae or bivalve growth that may settle on their branches, with the comfort of having shelter beneath them to hide in. The trees are about 3 feet tall with 5 long arms (2ft) that extend through it, creating 10 branches. There are a total of 8 trees in a 2x3 grid-like formation and 2 isolated. This includes 2 experimental groups, 4 trees each, with varying conditions of either having a rubble pile or not. If significant data is observed, it could be scaled up to the larger trees in the nursery. Staghorn Corals (Acer) will be propagated from the existing 6-foot trees at the Paradise Reef Nursery and will be hung on my 8 “mini-trees”, with 2 corals per arm. They are hung using labeled monofilament, identical to the corals hanging from the large nursery trees. Additional monitoring will be done on dives to be sure that the corals remain alive and healthy on the smaller 5 foot trees. Mini trees were installed underwater with the help of a field team.
Monitoring is done at least once a month after set-up. The data sheet includes fish and invertebrate counts for each tree, coral health, algal growth % on trees, and rubble pile diameters to observe any movement of the rubble. Data will be analyzed via Excel and R to determine significance among the two groups and identify the best combination for fish and invertebrate recruitment in the nursery.
