[Coral-List] Coral Larvae Settlement on Glass

[Bill Allison]

Hi Joe,

It is common to see corals growing on bottles especially old bottles that
have been abraded by sand, but usually the sand and bottle mobility
constrain growth. Perhaps both attracting larvae and their subsequent
adherence would be improved by etching or abrading the eternal surface but I
wonder if it could be economically done (e.g., by sand-blasting). If bottles
of various types - not just wine (think mouth openings) - were used and
organized in an appropriate manner you might have a experiment by which you
could learn about the effects of cavity opening size on the community of
coral associated mobile fauna.

A downside could be the usual for such structures, a significant physical
disturbance smashing gabions and bottles and littering the reef, posing an
aesthetic and possibly physical hazard, especially in the shallows.

Bill

On Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 8:36 AM, Joseph Marlow <joemarlow_2000 at yahoo.co.uk>wrote:

> Dear Listers,
>
> Does anybody have any information on coral larvae settlement on glass? I
> work for an environmental education organisation in Peninsular Malaysia and
> we work in conjunction with a beach resort that produces a large amount of
> waste wine bottles but has no means of recycling them. The suggestion is to
> sink the bottles in Gabion baskets on damaged areas of the reef in an effort
> to encourage new coral growth, however there is some suggestion that coral
> larvae will not settle on the glass. Do any listers have any experience of
> creating artificial reefs using old wine bottles?
>
> Thanks and regards
>
> Joe Marlow
> _______________________________________________
> Coral-List mailing list
> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>



-- 
________________________________
Say what some poets will, Nature is not so much her own ever-sweet
interpreter as the mere supplier of that cunning alphabet, whereby selecting
and combining as he pleases, each man reads his own peculiar lesson
according to his own peculiar mind and mood.
- Herman Melville, 1852. Pierre, or the Ambiguities