[Coral-List] Whether Alizarin S dye affects coral recruits

wai leong thedivinebovine at gmail.com
Sun Feb 12 21:20:32 EST 2006


Dear coral-listers,

I'm investigating the effects of depth on coral growth and survivorship for
my final year undergraduate research project in the National University of
Singapore.  I will be setting out tiles on the reef slope for a 3-4 months
before shifting them up to the reef crest and leaving them out for another
3-4 months before taking them out to measure any differences in size and
survivorship.  As part of this study, I'd have to be able to differentiate
the recruits that settled prior to shifting from the ones that settle
post-shifting.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how I should tag the
recruits, apart from trying to find them individually under a microscope
before shifting and marking them by hand?

I was thinking of marking them with Alizarin S, but am not sure about any
effects this might have on the recruits.  I should be able to use a low
concentration since I'm only trying to faintly dye the existing polyps to be
able to tell them apart from the ones that recruit later on.

Would appreciate any advice or suggestions anyone might have about this.

Thank you!

Sincerely,
Leong Wai
leongwai at nus.edu.sg



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