Post-larval capture and culture: A useful tool for Diadema antillarum restoration
Stacey M. Williams
Dr. Stacey Williams has successfully collected settlers and reared the settlers to early adults (3-4 cm) in a laboratory environment. This is a novel approach to D. antillarum recovery as she is bypassing the difficult phase of culturing larvae to metamorphosis and eventually settlement. Dr. Williams has been able to collect more than 2,000 settlers in five months of sampling on ten mooring lines. The first restoration activity took place during the summer of 2016, where 343 lab-reared D. antillarum were transferred and placed in enclosures, corrals, at a backreef at Media Luna in La Parguera, Puerto Rico. Seventy-nine (79) percent of young adults were recorded a month after the reintroduction and 75% after five months. Changes in benthic composition were evident in corrals one week after the reintroduction. D. antillarum in the corrals were efficient in grazing the benthos of algae, especially turf and Dictyota spp. the corral, 95% of the reef substrate was effectively grazed after two months of the reintroduction.
Institute for Socio-Ecological Research and Coastal Survey Solutions LLC
Stacey M. Williams
Dr. Stacey Williams has successfully collected settlers and reared the settlers to early adults (3-4 cm) in a laboratory environment. This is a novel approach to D. antillarum recovery as she is bypassing the difficult phase of culturing larvae to metamorphosis and eventually settlement. Dr. Williams has been able to collect more than 2,000 settlers in five months of sampling on ten mooring lines. The first restoration activity took place during the summer of 2016, where 343 lab-reared D. antillarum were transferred and placed in enclosures, corrals, at a backreef at Media Luna in La Parguera, Puerto Rico. Seventy-nine (79) percent of young adults were recorded a month after the reintroduction and 75% after five months. Changes in benthic composition were evident in corrals one week after the reintroduction. D. antillarum in the corrals were efficient in grazing the benthos of algae, especially turf and Dictyota spp. the corral, 95% of the reef substrate was effectively grazed after two months of the reintroduction.
Institute for Socio-Ecological Research and Coastal Survey Solutions LLC