Dataset: Sea cucumber enclosure experiments (Palmyra Atoll)

Name: Coral tissue mortality as a function of presence or absence of sea cucumbers and coral outplant type in cage experiments in the lagoonal habitat of Palmyra Atoll in Nov and Dec of 2022 (Coral Biodiversity project)
Published: 2024-02-12
Keywords: coral reefs, sea cucumbers, coral disease, detritivory, oceans

Cite This Dataset

DOI:10.26008/1912/bco-dmo.920233.1

Spatial Extent: N:5.8786 E:-162.069 S:5.8785 W:-162.069

Lagoonal habitat of Palmyra Atoll (5°52'42.6"N 162°04'09.8"W); depth 2-3m

Temporal Extent: 2022-11 - 2022-12

Project:

Positive Effects of Coral Biodiversity on Coral Performance: Patterns, Processes, and Dynamics (Coral Biodiversity)

Principal Investigator:

Cody Clements (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, WHOI BCO-DMO)

Contact:

Cody Clements (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, WHOI BCO-DMO)

BCO-DMO Data Manager:

Sawyer Newman (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, WHOI BCO-DMO)

Version:

Version Date:

2024-02-12

Restricted:

Validated:

Yes

Current State:

Final no updates expected

Coral tissue mortality as a function of presence or absence of sea cucumbers and coral outplant type in cage experiments in the lagoonal habitat of Palmyra Atoll in Nov and Dec of 2022 (Coral Biodiversity project)

Abstract:

Coral reefs are in global decline with coral diseases playing a significant role. Coral diseases are commonly sediment-associated and could be exacerbated by overharvest of sediment-feeding sea cucumbers. These data include visual assessments of coral (Acropora nasuta) tissue mortality among corals outplanted in 50 x 50 cm cages in sandy lagoonal areas of Palmyra Atoll (5°52'42.6"N, 162°04'09.8"W). Zero or two Stichopus chloronotus sea cucumbers (n = 15 cages per treatment) were placed within each cage, and two outplants of the coral Acropora nasuta were also placed in each cage; one outplant was placed in contact with benthic sediment and the other was elevated 2-3 cm above benthic sediment. Percent tissue mortality of A. nasuta was assessed daily for 14 days (November-December 2022). All coral tissue mortality data were collected by Dr. Cody Clements of the Georgia Institute of Technology.

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Archival Copy

Version Date	Archive	Persistent Identifier	Date Assigned
2024-02-12	Marine Biological Laboratory/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Library (MBLWHOI DLA)	10.26008/1912/bco-dmo.920233.1	2024-03-19

Methods & Sampling

In the lagoon on Palmyra Atoll (5°52'42.6"N 162°04'09.8"W), we conducted an experiment with a goal of determining the effects of a common sea cucumber (Stichopus chloronotus) on coral (Acropora nasuta) health. but enclosed or excluded the locally abundant sea cucumber Stichopus chloronotus and assessed impact on the coral Acropora nasuta. Within an area of about 160 m2, we erected thirty 50 x 50 x 12 cm cages constructed of plastic 1 cm2 mesh, planted two A. nasuta either in contact with or elevated 2-3 cm above benthic sediment into each cage, and randomly assigned cages to contain either zero or two S. chloronotus sea cucumbers (n = 15 for each treatment). Coral portions for the experiment were collected from 15 A. nasuta colonies in the East Lagoon of Palmyra Atoll where our experimental cages were located. Cages and coral tissue death were monitored daily for 14 days, with data from the final day used to contrast effects of sea cucumber presence and sediment contact on coral condition.

Organism identifiers: Coral: Acropora nasuta, LSID (urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:207009) Cucumber: Stichopus chloronotus, LSID (urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:149789)

BCO-DMO Processing

- Converted latitude and longitude fields from degree, minute, second format to decimal degree format
- Rounded latitude and longitude fields to 6 degrees of precision
- Removed spaces from column names and replaced with underscores ("_")
- Removed special characters from column names (# -> "Percentage" and # -> "Count")

Data Files

File
920233_v1_sea_cucumber_enclosure_experiments_palmyra_atoll.csv (Comma Separated Values (.csv), 2.79 KB) MD5:b0a7c040c06ffc3723c86aed891a03a3 Primary data file for dataset ID 920233, version 1

More Information about this dataset

Funding Sources

Funding Source	Award Number
NSF Division of Ocean Sciences	OCE-1947522

Deployments

None available yet

Instruments

None available yet

Parameters

Date and time formats are described in python strftime() syntax.

Supplied Name	Supplied description	Supplied Units	Standard Name
Cage	Cage ID in the experiment	unitless	object_ID
ID	The unique ID of each coral outplant	unitless	sample
Sediment_Contact	Describes whether corals were either (1) directly contacting cage sediments or (2) elevated and not contacting sediments	unitless	sample_descrip
Stichopus_chloronotus_Count	The number of Stichopus chloronotus per cage	individuals	count
Mortality_Percentage	The percentage of tissue mortality of each coral outplant at 14 days	unitless	mortality
Latitude	Latitude of the experiment site; a positive value indicates a Northern coordinate	decimal degrees	lat
Longitude	Longitude of the experiment site in decimal degrees; a negative value indicates a Western coordinate	decimal degrees	lon

Database

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Dataset: Sea cucumber enclosure experiments (Palmyra Atoll)