SettlementPlates

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Newly Installed Settlement Plates [1]

Settlement Plates

What are settlement plates?

  • Suitable strata for corals to settle and grow
  • Devices used to determine health of coral reefs (more recruitment, more reef growth)
    • Density and Recuitment
  • Can be used to determine spawning events
  • Locations
    • Coral Reefs
      • Horizontal
      • Vertical
      • Different depths
    • Artificial reefs
      • Reef balls
  • Types [2]
    • Ceramic tiles (finished, unfinished)
      • best option
      • gap habitat
    • Petri Dishes
    • Glass
    • Dead branching coral
    • Slices or blocks of stony coral

What do settlement plates measure?

  • Coral recruitment [3]
    • Health of coral reef
    • Scientists don’t know much about the coral reproduction process
Brain Coral budding [4]
    • Phi Phi Islands case study (recruitment after tsunami) [5]

How are settlement plates used?

  • Methods and different types of Settlement plates [2]
    • Similar Depth
    • Similar attachment mechanisms
      • Wire mesh
      • Steel bolts
    • Place the settlement plates before a known spawning period or leave them there for a complete season cycle
    • Label, bleach, dry
    • Examine with a dissection microscope
  • Why use Settlement Plates [3]
    • Able to be removed from reef
    • Yields comparable data to natural reef substrata without damaging the reef

Problems with Settlement Plates [2]

  • Typically use surfaces not found in the natural environment
  • Difficult to know where in the reef to place them. Drastic difference between plates only 5 meters apart
  • Vertical and horizontal surfaces produce different results
  • Expensive based on type of settlement plate
  • Cannot directly compare different settlement plates
    • Some have horizontal and vertical dimensions
    • Difficult to manipulate under a microscope
  • Destructive
    • Using live coral as a recruitment measure

Examples of settlement plates being implemented

  • St. John case study [6]
  • Phi Phi Islands, Thailand [5]
  • Australia, Great Barrier Reef near Cairns [7]



Notes

  1. "Eco Koh Tao | Eco Diving Courses, Gap Year Opportunities and Eco Internships - Koh Tao, Thailand." Eco Koh Tao | Eco Diving Courses, Gap Year Opportunities and Eco Internships - Koh Tao, Thailand. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2013.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Harriott, Vicki J., and David A. Fisk. "A comparison of settlement plate types for experiments on the recruitment of scleractinian corals." Marine Ecology Progress Series. 37. (1987): 201-208. Print.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Salinas-de-Leon, Pelayo, et al. "Scleractinian Settlement Patterns to Natural Cleared Reef Substrata and Artificial Settlement Panels on an Indonesian Coral Reef." Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 93.1 (2011): 80-5. GeoRef. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.
  4. "Coral Reproduction." NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program:. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2013.
  5. 5.0 5.1 Phongsuwan, N., C. Richter, and Y. Sawall. "Coral recruitment and recovery after the 2004 Tsunami around the Phi Phi Islands (Krabi Province) and Phuket, Andaman Sea, Thailand." Helgoland Marine Research 64.4 (2010): 357+. Academic OneFile. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.
  6. Green, Daniel H., Edmunds, Peter J.. "Spatio-temporal variability of coral recruitment on shallow reefs in St. John, US Virgin Islands." Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, Volume 397, Issue 2, 15 February 2011, Pages 220-229
  7. Harriott, V. J., and D. A. Fisk. "Recruitment Patterns of Scleractinian Corals: A Study of Three Reefs." AUST.J.MAR.FRESHWAT.RES. 39.4 (1988): 409-16. Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.
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