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Methodological recommendations for assessing scleractinian and octocoral recruitment to settlement tiles

Quantifying recruitment of corals is important for evaluating their capacity to recover after disturbances through natural processes, yet measuring recruitment rates in situ is challenging due to the minute size of the study organism and the complexity of benthic communities. Settlement tiles are wi...

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Autores principales: Harper, Leah M., Huebner, Lindsay K., O’Cain, Elijah D., Ruzicka, Rob, Gleason, Daniel F., Fogarty, Nicole D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8686733/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35003917
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12549
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author Harper, Leah M.
Huebner, Lindsay K.
O’Cain, Elijah D.
Ruzicka, Rob
Gleason, Daniel F.
Fogarty, Nicole D.
author_facet Harper, Leah M.
Huebner, Lindsay K.
O’Cain, Elijah D.
Ruzicka, Rob
Gleason, Daniel F.
Fogarty, Nicole D.
author_sort Harper, Leah M.
collection PubMed
description Quantifying recruitment of corals is important for evaluating their capacity to recover after disturbances through natural processes, yet measuring recruitment rates in situ is challenging due to the minute size of the study organism and the complexity of benthic communities. Settlement tiles are widely used in studies of coral recruitment because they can be viewed under a microscope to enhance accuracy, but methodological choices such as the rugosity of tiles used and when and how to scan tiles for recruits post-collection may cause inconsistencies in measured recruitment rates. We deployed 2,880 tiles with matching rugosity on top and bottom surfaces to 30 sites along the Florida Reef Tract for year-long saturations during a three year study. We scanned the top and bottom surfaces of the same tiles for scleractinian recruits before (live scans) and after treating tiles with sodium hypochlorite (corallite scans). Recruit counts were higher in corallite than live scans, indicating that scleractinian recruitment rates should not be directly compared between studies using live scans and those scanning tiles which have been processed to remove fouling material. Recruit counts also were higher on tile tops in general, but the proportion of settlement to the top and bottom surfaces varied significantly by scleractinian family. Thus, biases may be introduced in recruitment datasets by differences in tile rugosity or by only scanning a subset of tile surfaces. Finally, we quantified octocoral recruitment during live scans and found they preferentially settled to tile tops. We recommend that recruitment tile studies include corallite scans for scleractinian skeletons, deploy tiles with matching rugosity on top and bottom surfaces, and scan all tile surfaces.
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spelling pubmed-86867332022-01-07 Methodological recommendations for assessing scleractinian and octocoral recruitment to settlement tiles Harper, Leah M. Huebner, Lindsay K. O’Cain, Elijah D. Ruzicka, Rob Gleason, Daniel F. Fogarty, Nicole D. PeerJ Ecology Quantifying recruitment of corals is important for evaluating their capacity to recover after disturbances through natural processes, yet measuring recruitment rates in situ is challenging due to the minute size of the study organism and the complexity of benthic communities. Settlement tiles are widely used in studies of coral recruitment because they can be viewed under a microscope to enhance accuracy, but methodological choices such as the rugosity of tiles used and when and how to scan tiles for recruits post-collection may cause inconsistencies in measured recruitment rates. We deployed 2,880 tiles with matching rugosity on top and bottom surfaces to 30 sites along the Florida Reef Tract for year-long saturations during a three year study. We scanned the top and bottom surfaces of the same tiles for scleractinian recruits before (live scans) and after treating tiles with sodium hypochlorite (corallite scans). Recruit counts were higher in corallite than live scans, indicating that scleractinian recruitment rates should not be directly compared between studies using live scans and those scanning tiles which have been processed to remove fouling material. Recruit counts also were higher on tile tops in general, but the proportion of settlement to the top and bottom surfaces varied significantly by scleractinian family. Thus, biases may be introduced in recruitment datasets by differences in tile rugosity or by only scanning a subset of tile surfaces. Finally, we quantified octocoral recruitment during live scans and found they preferentially settled to tile tops. We recommend that recruitment tile studies include corallite scans for scleractinian skeletons, deploy tiles with matching rugosity on top and bottom surfaces, and scan all tile surfaces. PeerJ Inc. 2021-12-17 /pmc/articles/PMC8686733/ /pubmed/35003917 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12549 Text en ©2021 Harper et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Ecology
Harper, Leah M.
Huebner, Lindsay K.
O’Cain, Elijah D.
Ruzicka, Rob
Gleason, Daniel F.
Fogarty, Nicole D.
Methodological recommendations for assessing scleractinian and octocoral recruitment to settlement tiles
title Methodological recommendations for assessing scleractinian and octocoral recruitment to settlement tiles
title_full Methodological recommendations for assessing scleractinian and octocoral recruitment to settlement tiles
title_fullStr Methodological recommendations for assessing scleractinian and octocoral recruitment to settlement tiles
title_full_unstemmed Methodological recommendations for assessing scleractinian and octocoral recruitment to settlement tiles
title_short Methodological recommendations for assessing scleractinian and octocoral recruitment to settlement tiles
title_sort methodological recommendations for assessing scleractinian and octocoral recruitment to settlement tiles
topic Ecology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8686733/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35003917
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12549
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