Recruitment of Reef Building Coral Monastraea faveloata

The proposed project represents a new approach to the study of the dispersal patterns of coral larvae, and this new technology will be used to study the dispersal and settlement patterns of coral larvae on the upper Florida Keys reef tract. The novel, but simple system consists of a new type of inert particle tracer, which mimic coral larvae size and density, in conjunction with a collector array (patent pending) that can be deployed at the time of a coral mass spawning so that the trajectory of the coral larvae can be followed. The tracking will be in conjunction with a newly developed an immunoassay for the larvae of Montastraea faveolata, which is highly specific for this and closely related sibling species, and settlement plates to detect coral settlement rates post-spawn.

Contact Information

Dr. Robert Whitehead
University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Center for Marine Science
5600 Marvin K Moss Lane
Wilmington, NC 28409