Post detailing larval settlement and maintenance in June 2021 for M. capitata spawning.

Activities

6/19/2021

Set up settlement trays to record settlement and recruit survival under temperature treatments. Constructed racks in tanks to hold mesh bottom container that held n=6 acrylic chambers, n=2 chambers per conical. n=12 total settlement chambers per treatment. n=3 aragonite plugs placed upside down in each chamber, rinsed in seawtaer for 1h before use, not conditioned.

Determined larval concentration in each jar by counting larvae in 1mL n=5 sub samples. Estimated volume required to obtain 100 larvae and added this volume into each chamber at 1400.

Buckets with spare larvae put into n=6 large settlement containers with ~50 plugs per bin for bulk settlement for extra analyses and sending live to URI.

Will check settlement over the next rate to record settlement rate. Maintaining temperature treatments with Apex unit. Water mixed in chambers gently daily.

6/21/2021

Counted the number of settled larvae at 1400 (48hrs post time in chamber) and mixed water in chambers. Recorded on Google Drive

Identified settlers by oral disk and septa formation and polyp structures.

Changed water in leftover larval jars at 1000, can use for testing and trials.

Continuing treatments added another heater to help reduce load on heaters.

Calibrated apex at 0945, high tank probe was accurate.

6/22/2021

Checked settlement and recorded on Google Drive at 1215

6/23/2021

Checked settlement at 1415

6/26/2021

Checked settlement at 1100

Cleaned experiment, cleaned tanks Downloaded HOBO temperature loggers Sent live fragments and extra plugs to URI

Some plugs stored long term at the Coral Resilience Lab at HIMB