03 April 2022

Heatwave

Danielle started the third day of the heatwave period for the corals to to experience a diel fluctuation in the heated treatement of 29.2 °C to 29.9 °C.

Daily measurements

Danielle recorded bleaching score and survivorship for the fragments and colonies and completed 2 daily measurements of light, temperature, salinity and pH. She also cleaned the tanks.

Ash-free dry weight

Following the ash-free dry weight protocol, Danielle weighed the final ashed weight for the January, March, April, and some of heatwave TP1. She then weighed the dried pans from the drying oven for the rest of heatwave TP1 and TP2 and put them into the muffle furnace for their final ash round.

Chlorophyll

Lauren completed the chlorophyll quantification protocol for all TP3 samples.

Feeding Experiment Preparation

Lauren also started preparing for the Feeding Experiment by making a cage for the coral fragments to live in on Gump Reef. The cage is divided into two sections, with one section for corals that will be fed and one for corals that will not be fed. The cage was cable tied to a cinder block and attached to a float to mark the outplanting site. I also fitted the coral plugs with tubing such the the plugs fit snugly into the egg crate.

Data tracking

All daily measurements, bleaching score, and survivorship tracking for the colonies and fragments can be found on the Heatwave Google Drive and Gametogenesis GitHub.