Record Details

Effects of turbulence on coral fertilisation

CSIRO RDS Repository

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Title Effects of turbulence on coral fertilisation
 
Creator Christopher Doropoulos
 
Subject Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology)
Conservation and biodiversity
 
Description The dataset contains information for coral fertilisation rates under varying turbidity rates. Experiments were conducted at Heron Island Research Station in 2021 and at Orpheus Island Research Station in 2022. Three corals were tested, including Acropora cf. nasuta (Heron Island 2021), and A. millepora and A. cf. tenuis (Orpheus Island 2022). Three turbidity rates were tested, nominally ‘low’, ‘medium’ and ‘high’.
Each trial was conducted in 30 L of seawater, each with an individual turbulence generator. The turbulence generators were built by CSIRO Marine Engineering and Technology, based on Chiapponi et al. 2012. Data using a lab ADV was collected to quantify the actual turbulence.
The target sperm concentration for each trial was 10^4 – 10^5. The target concentration was estimated by using data collected on the density of eggs and sperm per bundle for each taxa. Based on that information, the number of bundles added to each container was ~120 bundles for A. cf nasuta and A. millepora, and ~62 bundles for A. cf. tenuis. Bundles from four individual colonies per trial were added immediately following spawning to allow for cross fertilisation. Samples were then taken from within each aquarium at 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes following spawning time. Three pseudoreplicates were sampled per time point per tank, an average of 30-70 eggs sampled per pseudoreplicate. Following sampling, samples were washed in SLS to deactivate sperm and left to develop for 2-3 hours prior to being fixed. Scoring classified the number of fertilised eggs based on observed cleavage or cell division.
A technical control for the sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) deactivation of sperm was conducted. The experiment used eggs and sperm from A. millepora. Sperm was used from three coral colonies, eggs from one coral colony. Egg-sperm contact time began at 22:00 and occurred for 5-minutes, prior to being washed with or without the SLS, at a concentration of 0.01 g L-1. Development of the eggs was allowed to occur for two hours to allow for a visual assessment of cleavage, prior to fixing. Three sperm concentrations were used – 5.04 x 10^3, 5.04 x 10^5, and 5.04 x 10^7 sperm mL-1 – to test whether there was an interaction with the SLS and sperm concentration.

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Metadata is fully public. Data files will be made fully public once the research has been published.
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Publisher CSIRO
 
Contributor Julian Uribe Palomino
Paul Branson
 
Date 2023-08-29
 
Type —
 
Format —
 
Identifier csiro:60094
 
Language —
 
Coverage —
 
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