{"id":23873,"date":"2018-03-05T16:50:52","date_gmt":"2018-03-05T21:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=23873"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:54:16","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:54:16","slug":"corals-belize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=23873","title":{"rendered":"Transporting corals in southern Belize"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>In December, graduate students from the UNC Department of Marine Sciences spent 10 days transplanting corals on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef in southern Belize. The data they collect from this research could impact coral reef conservation efforts in the future.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container \" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Reef. Sleep. Repeat.\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AzLTgp36dew?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>The task at hand appears simple: slip a zip tie through the plastic disc, ensure the ID tag is visible, and attach it to the metal table. Cut off the excess plastic. Repeat.<\/p>\n<p>Now, do that 48 times, underwater \u2014 with a limited amount of air on your back.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s harder than it looks.<\/p>\n<p>With a bucket of coral fragments and three mesh bags full of zip ties and rusty scissors, two graduate students from the <a href=\"https:\/\/marine.unc.edu\/\">UNC Department of Marine Sciences<\/a> methodically go through this process, breathing steadily through their regulators and ignoring the cold in their hands.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been a long, but very productive day. They spent the morning collecting corals, then two hours carefully cutting them into pieces, recording their measurements, labeling them, and now they\u2019re putting them back in the water.<\/p>\n<p>When the coral is secured, they gather their equipment and head to the surface. After eight hours, their work for the day is done.<\/p>\n<p>Back on the boat, Justin Baumann and Colleen Bove wiggle out of our wetsuits and exchange high fives \u2014 they just successfully transplanted six colonies of massive starlet coral.<\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow, they\u2019ll do it all over again.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_23874\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-23874\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-23874\" src=\"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2024\/07\/MG_9539_edited-low.jpg\" alt=\"Symmetrical brain corals look exactly as their name suggests \u2014 a series of convoluted valleys and ridges, which are filled with a yellow-brown alga called zooxanthella that gives the corals their color. (photo by Mary Lide Parker)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-23874\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Symmetrical brain corals look exactly as their name suggests \u2014 a series of convoluted valleys and ridges, which are filled with a yellow-brown alga called zooxanthella that gives the corals their color. (photo by Mary Lide Parker)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Brains and starlets <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At dinner that evening, Baumann and Bove, both PhD students in the Castillo lab at UNC, discuss their research over lionfish tacos. Why are they doing this work in Belize?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Mesoamerican Barrier Reef is the second largest barrier reef in the world,\u201d Baumann says. \u201cAnd 80 percent of it is in Belize.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of species of coral can be found here, but Baumann is most interested in two species in particular \u2014 massive starlet coral (<em>Siderastrea sidearea<\/em>) and symmetrical brain coral (<em>Pseudodiploria strigosa<\/em>). These large mounding corals often act as a base for creating environments for other organisms to live and grow.<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p>\u201cIf you think of a coral reef as a city, then these species are like the concrete foundation,\u201d Bove says.<\/p>\n<p>For this project, Baumann teamed up with <a href=\"http:\/\/fragmentsofhope.org\/\">Fragments of Hope<\/a>, a local non-profit based in Placencia, Belize, to access two research sites \u2014 one near-shore and one off-shore. The team plans to collect six colonies of each species from both reefs, totaling 24 colonies of coral altogether. After they cut and label them, the group will transplant half the fragments of each species to a new reef to see how they grow in different conditions.<\/p>\n<p>While corals are generally vulnerable organisms, researchers think these two species are quite hardy \u2014 part of Baumann\u2019s research is finding out just how resilient they are.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Beat the heat<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Elaborate reef structures cover the coastline here \u2014 from a mile outside the harbor to 30 miles offshore. The reefs closer to shore tend to be more vulnerable to human influences \u2014 runoff from the mainland, higher levels of pollution, and increased boat traffic all negatively impact corals.<\/p>\n<p>Baumann has data from previous research that suggests these two species grow faster near shore, even though those areas are more prone to stress \u2014 why and how could that be?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHave the near-shore corals adapted to the rougher conditions?\u201d he wonders. \u201cOr are we just thinking about it the wrong way? Could there be some benefit to living near shore?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It comes down to adaptation versus acclimatization, according to Baumann. The former is genetic and often requires multiple generations to see significant change. \u201cSo, if we move it from a cold area to a hot area, it takes multiple generations for the species to be able to succeed in that hot area,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Acclimatization is a faster process \u2014 changes occur within the lifetime of one individual organism. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re after here. If we can take a coral from a cool area and move it to an area that\u2019s warmer, and it survives or thrives, that tells us that those corals have a little bit of plasticity.\u201d This can make all the difference when it comes to surviving climate change.<\/p>\n<p><strong>So far, so good<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Baumann and Bove returned to Chapel Hill just before the holidays in December, but Baumann has stayed in close contact with his new colleagues at Fragments of Hope. Their divers have checked on the corals they transplanted \u2014 all of which look healthy and happy so far. Over the next year, Baumann will return to Belize to check on the corals and track the progress of their growth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are really grateful for this collaboration with Fragments of Hope. Without their help and expertise this project would never have been possible,\u201d Baumann says. \u201cWhen our research is done, they\u2019ll be able to use corals from this experiment to expand their coral restoration work.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"boilerplate\">\n<p><em>Justin Baumann is a PhD student in the Department of Marine Sciences within the UNC College of Arts &amp; Sciences.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Colleen Bove is PhD student in the Curriculum for the Environment and Ecology within the UNC College of Arts &amp; Sciences.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Story and video by Mary Lide Parker, Endeavors magazine<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In December, graduate students from the UNC Department of Marine Sciences spent 10 days transplanting corals on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef in southern Belize. The data they collect from this research could impact coral reef conservation efforts in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":23874,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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