Project Title: Fish interactions and species diversity among Orbicella annularis and Acropora
palmata in Curacao
Project Leader: Dana Ellsbury
Duration of Project: seven days in Curacao
Project Costs: $11,217.48
Abstract
Human interactions with the marine ecosystem are continually on the rise. These interactions
include overfishing, pollution, and global warming, among others. These interactions affect coral
reefs in ways of die backs, yellow band disease, black band disease, and bleaching. Reefs
contribute to 25% of the oceans diversity and are an important part of the marine ecosystem. The
removal of coral reefs or the interactions may greatly affect the ecosystem. This project aims to
contribute to the knowledge of interactions between fish species and Orbicella annularis and
Acropora palmata. With the increasing human-induced effects on the marine ecosystems, it is
important to understand these interactions because the removal of interactions or species may
greatly affect the ecosystem.
Identifying the diversity of fish species interacting with O. annularis and A. palmata in different
ways can help to explain the impact the future may have on the organisms with changing
conditions. Results from this project will help us to better predict ways to restore coral reefs with
a higher positive impact on fish diversity. We intend to use video collection and calculation to
determine if an interaction is favored with either species of corals. Using the project results,
scientists can improve ways to preserve or restore coral reefs to maintain species diversity in the
ecosystem.
1
Introduction
The Caribbean islands such as Curacao are surrounded by coral reefs. These islands in recent
years have come to be a popular tourist destination. As with any tropical island snorkeling and
diving are a tourist favorite to observe the coral reefs. Unfortunately, internationally the coral
reefs are in decline. “Environmental conditions appear to have degraded throughout the
Caribbean since the late 1990s, as evidenced by an emergence of several particularly virulent
diseases, recent bleaching events and other biotic disturbances, and increasing rates of mortality
among species previously thought to be resistant to these stressors” (Bruckner and Bruckner
2006). Though coral reefs make up a fraction of the ocean, they account for 25% of the ocean’s
diversity.
Coral reefs create a substrate and give rise to three-dimensional structures to the reef ecosystem.
They are important for “spawning, nursery, breeding, and feeding for a multitude of organisms”
(Moberg and Folke 1999). Reefs contribute to national economics such as fisheries and
pharmaceuticals. Many contents of drugs used today were founded on coral reefs. In addition to
reefs being beneficial economically for humans, they are a barrier to erosion and link together
marine ecosystems. Corals provide the majority of the primary producers on the reef (Schwarz et
al. 2008). Primary producers build the food chain of the ecosystem; removal or extinction of
primary producers such as corals, will greatly impact the ecosystem. Despite what the coral reefs
provide, they are being destroyed by bleaching, variety of diseases, storms, over-fishing, and
human activity, among others. The slow growth rates of coral reefs are at approximately 1-10cm
per year; this growth rate is constantly being tested now with the amount of success a colony can
be resilient and resistant to these affecting factors. With the recent disease outbreaks, harsh
storms, bleaching events, and predation, the corals may not keep the same resistance seen in the
past. Preserving and restoring coral reefs needs to be an important part of stopping pollution and
global warming effects to maintain species diversity in marine ecosystems. “Foundation species
are particularly important for restoration because they can facilitate the colonization of other
species by maintaining or providing key habitat or promoting community-level recovery from
disturbance” (Halpern et al. 2007).
A. palmata and Acropora cervicornis are two fast-growing corals that help build reefs in the
Caribbean; in recent years, these two species have been in decline and have entered the
threatened species list under the US Endangered Species Act (Miller et al. 2002). If the decline
continues and the corals are forced to extinction, the reefs will be greatly affected and change the
balance of the ecosystem. Coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass beds are used by many
organisms for protection, nurseries, and relative home; with the continual decline of these
habitats, fish species will also deplete. Factors of salinity, temperature, predation, and human
activity affect these habitats (Parrish 1989, Nagelkerken et al. 2000). Restoration of these
habitats is an important aspect to maintain species diversity and to maintain the ecosystems.
2
Overfishing and global warming changes have created a negative impact on reefs in the
Caribbean. Overfishing is changing the balance of the diversity, abundance, and relative size of
the fish seen on reefs. The Caribbean has seen changes over recent years impacting the food
chain and environment (Hay 1984). The importance of interactions between fish and coral
species is viable to understand what effects overfishing, disease, human activity, etc will have on
the future marine ecosystems. Though we are not in control of natural events such as storms, we
can decrease the human impact by reducing coastal development, pollution, fishery pressures,
and help stop global warming effects.
Scleratinian corals are among the types of corals seen in the Caribbean today. Two corals
commonly found in Director’s Bay of Curacao are O. annularis and A. palmata. Both coral
species are derived from Phylum Cnidaria. O. annularis is a boulder coral while A. palmata is a
branch coral.
There are several types of O. annularis species; one common species in the Caribbean has small
polyps with large colonies forming groups of columns. The forming columns widen distally. The
living tissue of O. annularis is found mainly on tops of columns (Knowlton et al. 1992). They
are given the common name, boulder corals, due to their spherical shape and stationary position
resembling a boulder. A. palmata is found in large assemblages. They are given the common
name elkhorn because of their branch structures that stretch outward into the water column
resembling an elkhorn. They are often brown and the branch size and shape depends on the
colony. Would a Pomacentridae prefer to interact with O. annularis or A. palmata for
protection? Why?
The purpose of this study is to determine the species diversity of fish for each O. annularis and
A. palmata and the fish interaction variance among the two species of corals. In this study, the
hypothesis will be tested by observing the interaction of Caribbean fish species and the two coral
species. The null hypothesis is there will be no difference in fish interaction between the two
species of coral colonies collected in the five minute intervals. We predict that fish species will
have a higher interaction of protection/defense with A. palmata because of the branch structures,
and a lower protection/defense interaction with O. annularis because of the open water around
the boulder coral. We predict that fish species will have a higher interaction of feeding with O.
annularis because the boulder will have open surface area containing nutrients for fish species
and will be closer to the ocean floor and a lower feeding interaction with A. palmata because the
branches are more in the ocean current decreasing the available nutrients on the surface. This
study will provide information about the affects and changes declines and possible extinction of
Caribbean coral reefs will have on fish in the marine ecosystems.
3
Materials and Methods
The video collection of colonies will be taken twice a day over a two day period. The first
collection will be in the morning at 10am to observe diurnal species of fish interactions, and the
second collection will be in the evening around 7pm to observe nocturnal species of fish
interactions. The same procedure will be taken for the second day. The recordings are taken
twice in the same day to include fish species that are active at different times of the day.
Establishing sampling colonies
The team will arrive at Directors Bay in Curacao; there will be two teams of two formed to cover
more colonies. When the teams are suited up, they will enter the water. There will be one
member on each team to carry the mesh bag containing the numbered tagging tape strips, go-pro
video camera in waterproof housing, stop watch, depth gauge, underwater slate, underwater
paper, and writing pencil. Each team will find 20 colonies of their coral species, either O.
annularis or A. palmata. The corals will be chosen at relatively the same distance from the shore
to minimize other dependent factors including wave refraction. All of the colonies chosen will be
healthy corals with a minimum size of 50cm in height to keep a standard of all interactions and
minimize dependent variables. When a colony is identified as large enough and healthy, one of
the two team members will place a piece of numbered tagging tape onto the colony and the depth
of the colony will be taken for data collection to observe any possible correlations. We will wait
5 minutes after tagging the colonies for fish to adjust before recording.
Video collection
When 20 colonies of each O. annularis and A. palmata are tagged, the video collection will
begin. One of the two members on the team will be video recording the individual colonies while
the other keeps a time of video recording with the stop watch. The two teams will video each
colony for 5 minutes using a go-pro video camera. During video collection, the recorder will try
to remain on the surface of the water and/or remain at a distance of at least 36 inches from the
colony; this will help to decrease the effects that the recorder may have on the fish interactions
and create a standard environment for data collection. Also, the recorder will reduce movement
as much as possible to create a clear image with the video and decrease the chance of deterring
fish interactions. The video recorder will need to be sure to get the number of colony recorded
onto the video and have the second team member record the colony numbers in order of video
recording to keep track of data. The tagging tape will remain on the colonies until the video
collection and review is complete. The two teams will record 20 colonies each, once in the
morning and again in the evening; this procedure will be repeated a second day.
Analysis of video collection
When the video collection has been taken of all 40 colonies between the two teams, the videos
can be reviewed for clarity on the second and third day after the field work is complete. The data
4
collection and calculations will follow on the fourth, fifth, and sixth day and will be used for
correction days if video collections need to be re-recorded for any colonies. The table represents
the data collection that will be taken when reviewing the tapes. For every interaction with each
colony recorded, a tick mark will be placed in the column representing that interaction. If the
interaction is undetermined, the data collector will add a tick mark to the third column.
Number of colony (flagging
tape number)
# of fish with protection
interaction with colony
# of fish with feeding
interaction with colony
# of fish with interaction
undetermined (other than
protection or feeding)
Sample colony # 1
Sample colony # 2
Sample colony # 3
Sample colony # 4
The second type of collection will be identification of species. This will focus solely on fish
species interacting with the coral colonies. For each new species of fish, another row will be
added to the table; for a reoccurring species of fish, the recorder will add a tick mark every time
that species is seen interacting with the colony in any way. During the video review, if the same
fish returns to the coral colony, the data will count the interaction as two interactions of the same
species of fish. To count the number of fish interacting with the coral colony, the fish that count
will have a minimum time of 3 seconds in close proximity of the coral with further intent than
swimming, or hovering over the coral at a distance of 8 inches or more. This guideline will be
used to decrease the outliers of the experiment that do not interact with the coral but rather hover
in close proximity by coincidence.
Data Analysis
With expected conditions, the frequency interactions would be seen as equal. The three
interactions being observed in this study are feeding, protection, and other/undetermined. We
will compute a Chi Square Test to compare our observed values versus our expected values. This
test will be used to calculate the observed interaction types of all fish species. The results will be
comparable for the occurrence of each interaction with O. annularis and A. palmata.
We will also compute the Shannon-Wiener Diversity index (H1= -∑𝑠𝑖=1 𝑝i ln(pi)) for each
observation where pi is the proportion of the ith of s species recorded. We will perform a t-test
using the diversity values for an n=20 for each coral. The calculated results will explain if O.
annularis or A. palmata has a higher species diversity of fish or if the species diversity is equal
between the coral species.
5
Timetable
The team will arrive in Curacao; the first day will consist of going to the hotel supplied for the
week and going shopping for food needed for the week. The first night will be used to get the
equipment together needed to go in the water and to assign tasks for the next day. The second
day, the team will arrive at Directors Bay at 9am to begin the experiment. Each team will take
one species of coral (20 colonies each), identify, measure, and tag with numbers, record the
depth, and video record the 20 colonies. The video collection consists of 5 minutes per colony
and a total of 20 colonies per species of O. annularis and A. palmata; the recordings should start
around 10am after tagging is complete. This entire process should take approximately 3 hours to
complete. When the team finishes the video collection, they will upload videos to the laptop and
charge the go-pro cameras.
That evening, the teams will go back to Director’s Bay and enter the water at 6:30pm to record
the same colonies from earlier that day. The colonies should still have the same numbered tags
and have the same depth and size, so the scientists will need to: record the colonies for 5 minutes
each; recordings should start around 7pm. The recording should take about 2 hours to complete.
When day 2 collections are complete, the teams will upload the videos to the laptop and charge
the go-pro cameras. Final review of the videos taken that day will be needed to verify that they
are clear enough to retrieve data from.
On the third day, the teams will perform the same procedure as before at Director’s Bay with the
same colonies. The team will arrive at Director’s Bay at 9:30am to record the colonies tagged
from day 2. The recordings will be 5 minutes for each colony and should take a total of 2 hours
to complete. When all colonies are recorded, the teams will go back to the hotel to upload the
videos and charge the go-pro cameras. That evening at 6:30pm, the teams will go back to
Director’s Bay with the same procedure to do the final recording of the colonies. The teams will
enter the water at 6:30pm and start recording around 7pm. Each colony will be recorded for 5
minutes and should take a total of 2 hours to complete. When the video recording is complete,
the teams will go back to the hotel to upload videos and charge the go-pro cameras.
The fourth and fifth day will consist of reviewing the videos for data collection. If a video is not
clear enough to retrieve data, one or more of the teams will need to go back to Director’s Bay to
re-record the colony. When all videos are clear enough to retrieve data, the teams will go to
Director’s Bay to remove the tagging tape from the colonies. The sixth day will consist of final
data collections and analysis. The seventh day will be the departure from Curacao.
6
Literature Cited
Bruckner, AW, Bruckner RJ (2006) The recent decline of Montastraea annularis (complex)
coral populations in western Curaçao: a cause for concern? Rev. Biol. Trop, 54: 45-58
Halpern, BS, Silliman, BR, Olden, JD, Bruno, JP, Bertness, MD (2007). Incorporating positive
interactions in aquatic restoration and conservation. Frontiers in Ecology and the
Environment, 5.3, 153-160.
Hay ME (1984)"Patterns of fish and urchin grazing on Caribbean coral reefs: are previous results
typical?." Ecology 65.2: 446-454.
Knowlton N et al. (1992) "Sibling species in Montastraea annularis, coral bleaching, and the
coral climate record." Science(Washington) 255.5042: 330-333.
Miller, MW, Baums, IB, Williams, DE, Szmant AM (2002) Status of Candidate coral, Acropora
palmata, and its snail predator in the upper Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary:
1998-2001. NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-SEFSC-479, 26 pp
Moberg F, Folke C (1999) "Ecological goods and services of coral reef ecosystems." Ecological
economics 29.2: 215-233.
Nagelkerken I et al. (2000) "Importance of mangroves, seagrass beds and the shallow coral reef
as a nursery for important coral reef fishes, using a visual census technique." Estuarine,
Coastal and Shelf Science 51.1: 31-44.
Parrish JD (1989) "Fish communities of interacting shallow-water habitats in tropical oceanic
regions." Marine ecology progress series. Oldendorf 58.1: 143-160.
Schwarz, JA et al. (2008) “Coral life history and symbiosis: functional genomic resources for
two reef building Caribbean corals, Acropora palmata and Montastraea faveolata.” BMC
genomics 9.1:97
7
Budget Page
Item:
Price:
Total:
Tagging tape (100 ft.)
Sharpie (2 pack)
Go-pro video camera
Underwater housing for Go-pro video camera
SanDisk extreme flash memory card 64 GB for Go-pro
HDMI cable for Go-pro
Charging cable for Go-pro
Laptop with charger
Underwater writing slate
Underwater paper (100 sheet pack)
#2 Pencil (12 per pack)
Waterproof Stopwatch
Diving gear net bag
Underwater wrist depth gauge
Reef fish identification: Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas [book]
Reef fishes: A Guide to Their Identification, Behavior, and
Captive Care, Vol. 1 [book]
Reef Fish Behavior: Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas [book]
Snorkel mask
Snorkel
Booties (one pair)
diving fins (one pair)
Weight belt
Weights (2 lbs)
Wetsuit
Cloth measuring tape with cm measuring (50 ft.)
Small mesh bag
SUV rental (one week 4+ passenger vehicle)
Air fare to Curacao and return home (one week per person)
Hotel/housing (one week per person)
Food (allowance 3 meals one week per person)
$5.99
$1.70 (X2)
$199.99 (X2)
$49.99 (X2)
$79.95 (X2)
$19.99 (X2)
$19.95 (X2)
$1500.00
$10.95
$12.95
$2.95
$5.95
$19.99
$99.95
$23.17
$59.75
$5.99
$3.40
$399.98
$99.98
$159.90
$39.98
$39.90
$1500.00
$10.95
$12.90
$2.95
$5.95
$19.99
$99.95
$23.17
$59.75
$46.13
$24.95 (X4)
$9.95 (X4)
$29.95 (X4)
$37.95 (X4)
$19.95 (X4)
$6.00 (X 20)
$129.99 (X4)
$15.95 (X 3)
$1.95 (X 4)
$300.00
$600.00 (X4)
$1000.00 (X4)
$200.00 (X4)
Total:
$46.13
$99.80
$39.80
$119.80
$151.80
$79.80
$120.00
$519.96
$47.85
$7.80
$300.00
$2400.00
$4000.00
$800.00
$11,217.48
8
Budget Justification
The reef fish identification books will be bought before the travel to Curacao along with the
snorkeling equipment per person. The snorkeling equipment includes the snorkel mask, snorkel,
booties, diving fins, weight belt, wetsuit, diving gear net bag, and weights. The identification
books will be used to identify species of fish to run Shannon-Wiener Diversity index. The
airfare is needed to visit Curacao to collect data and the SUV rental is needed to travel around
the island and to transport all the equipment. Housing and food will be required while the team is
on the island to perform the experiment with the timeline given.
The diving gear net bag will be needed to carry the snorkeling equipment. The small mesh bag
will carry the cloth measuring tape, tagging tape, go-pro cameras, waterproof stop watch, depth
gauge, and pencil while in the water. The cloth measuring tape is needed for measuring the size
of the colonies of corals. The tagging tape and sharpies are needed to keep track of the different
colonies of corals being recorded. The go-pro camera with its underwater housing and
accessories is needed to record the colonies of corals and ability to load recordings onto the
laptop to be able to refer back to in the lab. The memory stick, cords, and laptop are needed to
observe the recorded videos after initial recordings in the water. The stop watch is needed to
keep track of the timeline for recordings. The depth gauge is needed to record the depth of the
colonies. The writing slate, underwater paper and pencils are needed to record any information
while in the water, the depth of the colonies, and the numbered colonies in order of videos.
9