[CDHC] clonal coral line update
Eric Borneman
eborneman at uh.edu
Sat Feb 21 19:02:06 EST 2004
Hi list:
This a brief note to inform the list of progress on the establishment
of coral clonal lines through culture efforts. As some of you may know,
I have been working intensively with Reef Savers, a large coral
propagation facility here in Houston.
The main purpose of this note is to acquire any feedback from
interested parties as to species, sizes, and numbers of corals that
might be required for your research so that we can tailor the
propagation efforts to meet this initial demand.
Pacific species are easily available for us, and we are concentrating
on a few species with a large literature base. If anyone has
particular requests or needs, please send me an email and we would be
happy to try and get them into culture.
Furthermore, this is a general request to the list to consider shipping
any live specimens used in your research to us after the course of your
investigation, provided, of course, that the corals have not been
subjected to any agents that may compromise the health of existing
stock. This would be a good way to increase the diversity at the
facility, prevent wastage of corals already collected, and would make
the same genotype line available to the party for later work if any
aspect of the research needed to be repeated or expanded.
Caribbean genera and species currently present:
I have acquired broodstock from the Flower Gardens, Belize, and the
Keys. The most extensive collections are from the Truman Annex site at
Key West, where, in November, we brought back 165 pounds of coral. This
week, we will be driving a truck back to the site to bring back a great
deal more.
Mycetophyllia sp.
Scolymia sp.
Porites porites
Porites divaricata
Porites astreoides
Montastraea franksi
Montastraea faveolata
Montastraea annularis
Montastraea cavernosa
Stephanocoenia michelinii
Siderastrea radians
Siderastrea siderea
Manacina areolata
Madracis decactis
Diploria strigosa
Diploria labyrinthiformis
Oculina diffusa
Favia fragum
Agaricia agaracites
Agaricia tenuifolia
Isophyllia sinuosa
Muriceopsis flavida
Plexaura sp.
At the end of next week, I will be able to include at least:
Acropora cervicornis
Colpophyllia natans
Meandrina meandrites
Pacific species:
Acropora millepora
Pocillopora damicornis
Stylophora pistillata
Acropora nana
Acropora formosa
We have many other species of Pacific corals that can become CDHC
culture material if the need or request arises.
We have just finished a first round of fragmentation of several of the
Caribbean species.
Corals are separated by location, species, and genotype.
We expect to be able to offer some of these corals to the research
community within a year in limited amounts, but full availability of
these species must wait until production is ramped up. For some,
broodstock levels are currently too low to support large scale
propagation, and this is especially true of large fleshy species (e.g
Scolymia, Mycetophyllia) or massive slow growing species (although our
growth rates thus far have been very high and the growth of M cavernosa
and Diploria has surprised us).
Thus far, mortality of collected specimens is less than 0.05%, having
lost only a single colony of Favia fragum to bleaching without recovery
upon introduction to strong metal halide lamps.
I look forward to hearing feedback and comments
Best,
Eric Borneman
Department of Biology
University of Houston
Science and Research Bldg II
4800 Calhoun
Houston TX, 77204
ph 713-743-2667
eborneman at uh.edu
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