And we have....coral settlement!

The Settlement Department

A few weeks into the raising of the larvae, we have seen settlement on the ceramic tiles with both the larvae at KML and the ones at Mote! Well done everyone!!

Happy little Montastrea faveolata larvae

Tiles with coral settlement!

Anke and Shelby are still hard at work at KML caring for the larvae.

Shelby and Anke performing inoculations of the coral larvae. There are multiple treatments set up in the kreisels (A, B and Control symbiont types) Here they are inoculating them with a certain amount of cells/ml of the different Symbiodinium algal strains. Part of the work will then include seeing how the corals respond and grow depending on which symbiont type they are exposed to.

Newly settled coral larvae! So cute.

August 20th

BURR lab: Anke, Shelby, Rachel, Mac and Noel

August 20th: After celebrating Anke and Rachel's birthday with chocolate cake to keep us all on sugar-highs while out on the boat for the night, we went out for the last night of spawning! Only the Diadon from KML went out; with a full crew of everyone except Noel and Pam who were good caretakers for the larvae back in the lab.

strong current as the divers come out of the water! Boat line up for the night!

We had some rough waters and quite a current out at Alligator Reef as the tents were set up. While we waited for spawning it rained a bit, but we were all in good spirits (no doubt the chocolate cake helped!)

getting ready to dive for the spawning event!

Another successful night! We set up 10 tents, and got almost as much spawn as the previous night! All divers and snorkelers worked great together and we had a lot of fun too....it was a perfect night with a beautiful moon in the sky, and many beautiful moon jellies in the water too.


Anke caring for the spawn on the boat!







Back at the KML wet lab by 1:30am and right away we went to work getting the spawn in coolers and changing the water on the spawn we have from the previous night....whew those little coral babies are a lot of work!

Mac on the boat with the spawn

We worked through the entire night....
Caring for coral larvae is a 24/7 job!!

Noel, the late-night coral larvae babysitter and Shelby hard at work back at KML wet lab

Successful Spawning Event!

Get ready.....get SET......GO!

August 19th (continued!): Montastrea spawned!!!! It was quite a successful night as all three boats convened back at KML in the wee hours of the morning with enough spawn to fill 11 coolers and totes!

We all worked hard into the night diluting the spawn into the coolers/totes, and rotating who gets a break to sleep for a few hours.



The larvae is then maintained in the lab, and every 10 minutes we go around to each cooler and using a plastic transfer pipet, gently swirl around the edges of the cooler to get the larvae from sticking to the sides. We also use a squirt bottle to squirt down the edges if some get stuck.

Tents all set up and ready!

We took turns caring for the spawn on 4 or 5 hour shifts.








Pam caring for the coral larvae

We were all exhausted from a long night, but very excited about the success! While some slept, some cared for the larvae, and some started prepping for the last night out on the boat....

11 coolers and totes full of Montastrea faveolata!! Way to go everyone!

August 18th

Anticipation for spawning!

August 18: Day 2 of spawning.....!! High hopes for tonight!


Today we focused only on Montastrea faveolata and didn't tent Acropora at all. All 3 boats went out on the water by 5:30pm. The two boats down at Mote (the Mote Boat and the "Fat Cat" catamaran), and the Diadon at KML. The boats were loaded with divers, snorkelers, "boat people" (in charge of the spawn), captains, and snacks. (of course)

Noel demonstrating how we catch our zzz's anywhere!

After making it to Looe Key site, both boats set up tents and watched a fabulous Keys sunset before waiting and waiting and waiting for corals to spawn....however, quite the tropical storm blew through, which got so bad that the Mote boat headed back to shore without even collecting all the tents that were set up. Those of us in the catamaran were lucky enough to get to stay aboard and weather out the storm for the night.

The water was deemed too dangerous to dive down to check for spawning, so we huddled under the awning of the boat to stay dry while hoping the corals actually weren't spawning so we weren't missing out!

The storm did eventually pass, and we were able to find spots on the catamaran to sleep (or at least attempt to sleep) until morning.

The crew on the Fat Cat were woken up by the Conch horn (provided by Dave Vaughn of Mote!) and watched a beautiful sunrise before getting into the water to take down the tents (and check for spawning--which never happened either)
After bringing up all 8 tents, we proceeded to Buoy 10 where the Mote Boat was last night and collected their tents from last night too.

Chris and Charlie putting up tents at Looe Key....watch out for those moon jellies!

2-hour sail back to Mote and 1 hour drive back to KML for Shelby and Rachel....whew! It was a long night! Just to prep everything for spawning Day 3!!!

August 19th: Today is it.....everyone can feel it! Lots of excitement around KML, as we get the boats ready to go out yet again! Another storm came through KML as we got ready....luckily it passed through and didn't affect the evening's boat excursions.

Shelby and Claire scrubbing tiles that will be used for coral settlement

It did however make for an exciting snorkel out to the marina site where Shelby and Noel helped Rachel collect the falcon tubes for the Cassiopea project for the Day 3-sampling! Everything is looking good in the upside-down jellyfish side of things as Rachel spent the evening sampling polyps for her project.

And so it begins!

Shelby and Noel's sea water run this morning was quite eventful!

August 17: Arrival of all the divers and snorkelers who are here to help with spawning! KML is bustling with excitement! Mac gave an orientation for all the volunteers then the chaos before everyone left on boats for the spawning sites.














3 boats went out; The Diadon that left from KML which went to Alligator Reef, and the other 2 boats (The Mote boat and The Fat Cat catamaran) which departed from Mote Marine Laboratory on Summerland Key (about an hour West of KML) that both go to Looe Key.
The boats were waiting for the spawning of Acropora Palmata tonight.


All were ready for a great night, but it ended up being a dry run, as none of the corals spawned. The spawning tents were packed up and all coral enthusiasts headed back to the lab by 2:30am. No corals spawned tonight, but spirits were still high and we all have high hopes for spawning activity tomorrow night!


Shelby, catching some zzzz's on the boat!

Almost spawning time!

Where is that puppy?

August 14 and 15: We welcomed the arrival of Pam and Shelby to the BURR team here at KML! Shelby's arrival meant late-night sampling and cell counting (and popsicle eating of course) for the completing of the Briarium project. After 2 days of sampling, the experiment is finally coming to a close! It has been weird the past day not to worry about the corals; "Its raining, are they covered? Is it too hot, should we put the shade cloth on? What is the chiller temperature? Should we put another ice container in?"














Shelby, Rachel and Anke hard at work sampling Briarium polyps




August 16: Cassiopea polyps were deployed in the KML marina today, despite the tropical storm that was making its way through Long Key. While Rachel was hard at work getting the polyps out in the bay with Noel's help, Mac, Anke and Shelby made the trip up to Key Largo for car rental issues.

Cassiopea polyps out in the bay!

By 1:30pm Andrew captained the eager crew of Mac, Noel and Rachel for an afternoon on the boat with several stops planned: First! to Cheeca Rocks to check out the Montastrea at the reef there, since Noel will be putting his samples back out there in a few months. The reef was beautiful, the M. fav looked ok, but a lot of corals were bleached. Moon jellies galore.

Mac and Noel diving at Cheeca Rocks and Noel taking a break to smile for the camera!

Second stop! To check the visibility at Alligator Reef and get sea water in the Deep Blue water. Last stop of the day was Craig Key where Mac collected Briarium samples while Noel and Rachel dismantled Ann's (Mac's previous MS student) Porites divaracata set up.
The day did not wind down until well past 3am where Anke was busy sampling the rest of her Briarium polyps, Rachel and Shelby were filtering water (and trying not to get eaten alive by mosquitoes), and Noel was siliconing the kreisels all in preparation for the first day of spawning tomorrow! whew!!




Shelby, happily finishing the rest of her Briarium sampling!

What are the symptoms of nitrogen narcosis?

Cotton Candy Clouds (CCCs not CCAs!) at KML

Hello faithful followers! And now....the wonderful world of Symbiodinium.....

But first! an update on the other side of the Symbiont-host interaction spectrum that BURR studies: Cassiopea xamachana! (the upside-down jellyfish)

Polyp of Cassiopea under a compound microscope.... you can see the symbionts in it!

Rachel has been caring for Cassiopea polyps since her arrival here at KML back in May, and now again this past week. (see previous posts!) She has 3 treatments set-up based on symbiont type she is inoculating the polyps with: A, B, and Control (no symbionts). In a few days they polyps will be infected enough and will be put out in the marina here at KML for a week and then will be returned back to the lab and sampled. Back in Buffalo, Rachel will analyze the samples to see if the symbiont type "switched" or "shuffled."

Scyphistomae (polyp) with two buds (asexually produced planulae) and polyps settled on a mangrove leaf

August 13: The day included an exciting run into town: Home Depot, where we officially bought all the C-batteries they had in stock, Winn Dixie for late-night boat snacks during spawning (and to watch Noel battle with himself over the best deals for food supplies), and Publix for more groceries (why not).
Then, filtering sea water. Filtering. Lots of filtering! Some kreisel-making (and hot-glue-gunning), then more filtering! Cleaning polyp's water dishes....and....did I mention filtering sea water? But the coral polyps will be happy in their thrice filtered sea water, so it's all worth it.

Anke, Rachel and Noel with the stash of boat snacks! The puppy. Creeping.

BURR Coral Spawning 2011!

Hello Florida Keys!

The summer has flown by and it's that time of year again....

Coral Spawning 2011!

After a month's break, Anke (Mac's brilliant Post-doc), Noel and Rachel (Mac's M.S. students), and of course our fearless leader, Dr. Mary Alice Coffroth herself have re-convened at the beautiful Keys Marine Laboratory for what hopes to be a successful spawning field season. Soon to join the crew here is Shelby (Mac's PhD student), and an army of eager volunteers and coral enthusiasts!

Noel working hard on setting up kreisels

In the week before the spawning occurs, there is a lot of work that needs to be done around the lab.... making sea water runs, filtering the sea water, checking and repairing the spawning tents, prepping the wet lab for the arrival of the larvae, and, thanks to the hard work by Noel, the massive job of setting up the Kreisels!

August 11th: The morning's adventure was a trip to Alligator Reef that unfortunately was cut short by blowing out the bottom half of the engine...luckily for us we had Bill come rescue us and tug us back to KML. In the meantime, Cindy and Noel were working hard to try and fix the problem.... though it didn't rectify the situation, they get kudos for the effort!
We did get to go back out on another boat in the afternoon and made it to Alligator....the site is deep, but it looks good for Montastrea spawning, so we may be back.

Cindy and Noel trying to fix the motor and Briarium polyps!

August 12th: Our second sea water run early this morning was done in calm waters as Noel took over at the helm for Bill as we made our way to blue waters. No lobster trap buoys were hit. Way to go, Captain Noel! We got all 7 garbage bins full of water off the boat so the next group could go out in record time; about 1/2 hour! Today's work is spray painting the dive weights (much to Rachel's pleasure), doing water changes for Briarium (much to Anke's pleasure), and filtering lots and lots of sea water (much to all our pleasure).

Anke examining the Briarium polyps and Rachel spray painting the weights