[Coral-List] Coral tissue extraction

[Marah Newman]

Dear All,

I am trying to get an estimate of coral tissue biomass from small samples of
a few different species of coral.  I was wondering if anyone could describe
to me or point me towards papers that detailed, quite specifically, the
technique for getting coral tissue biomass- either by decalcifying the
skeleton and weighing the tissue directly, or by weighing the sample with
and without the tissue and determining the weight of tissue as the
difference.  I am concerned that in the decalcification process I might lose
some of the organic material (such as lipids?) but am not sure how to remove
the tissue from the coral skeleton in a drying technique.  Please let me
know if there are any good references for methodologies for measuring coral
tissue biomass.  The other problem is that I am limited in the field in
terms of access to stoves and chemicals, so the simpler the method, the
better.

Thanks so much,

Marah Newman
___________________________________

Marah Newman
Graduate Student Office, Box 0208
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla
CA 92093, USA