[Coral-List] zooxanthellae counts from histological sections

[Nicole Patten]

Dear coral listers,
I would very much like to hear from scientists who have obtained 
zooxanthellae counts from histological sections. I have 1um toludine blue 
stained sections that I have prepared from Acropora sp. which I want to use 
to determine zooxanthellae abundances. The few papers I have regarding 
methodology for this are from the 1990s and have used calibrated microtomes 
to manually count zooxanthellae in a calculated area of the gastrodermis. I 
am aware that there are now image analysis programs that are available for 
this type of work though I am not having any luck finding the names of such 
programs (or recent papers that have used such methods). I would appreciate 
any information you can share. Please contact me directly on my email address,
Thanks in advance
Nicole


Nicole Patten <npatte10 at scu.edu.au>

PhD Candidate
School of Environmental Science and Management
Southern Cross University
PO Box 157
Lismore, NSW
AUSTRALIA  2480

Phone: 02 6620 3815
Mobile: 0409601085
Fax: 02 6621 2669