Dataset: sea_fan_survey
Deployment: Coral_Dive_HM

Annual health surveys of the sea fan Gorgonia ventalina in La Parguera, Puerto Rico

Principal Investigator:

Drew Harvell (Cornell University, Cornell)

Co-Principal Investigator:

Laura Mydlarz (University of Texas at Arlington, UT Arlington)

Contact:

Dr Colleen Burge (Cornell University, Cornell)

BCO-DMO Data Manager:

Shannon Rauch (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, WHOI BCO-DMO)

Project:

Influence of Temperature and Acidification on the Dynamics of Coral Co-Infection and Resistance (Climate_CoralDisease)

Current State:

Final no updates expected

Version:

14 Sept 2012

Version Date:

2012-09-14

Data URL:

https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset-deployment/455439/data

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Description

Health surveys of the sea fan Gorgonia ventalina were carried out from 2006 to 2010 at two coral reefs in La Parguera, Puerto Rico. The proportions of healthy and abnormal G. ventalina colonies along survey transects are reported.

Methods & Sampling

Dataset acquisition description

Sampling and Analytical Methodology:
Sixteen 20 square-meter band transects were randomly laid (4 transects per depth) at two reefs in La Parguera, PR, Media Luna (3 to 18 m depths) and Buoy (18 to 25 m depths). Surveys occurred annually in September or October from 2006 to 2010 at Media Luna and 2007 to 2010 at Buoy. Along each transect all apparently healthy G. ventalina colonies and colonies with lesions were enumerated. Any purple or abnormally colored area on the sea fans was checked carefully. Lesions were also recorded and described as follows: large irregular purple spots (aspergillosis-like; full description Work and Aeby 2006), MFPS, predation, bleaching, and other abnormalities. Other abnormalities included growth anomalies, cyanobacteria, red band disease etc. Signs of predation by snails (flamingo tongue) and by fireworms were noted,. Prevalence (the total number of each abnormality divided by the total number of individuals) of each type of abnormality was calculated per transect, depth, and year.

Data Processing Description

Dataset Processing Description

Data Processing:
MFPS prevalence was arcsine transformed before data analysis to meet the assumptions of normality and equal variances (Zar 1999), and an ANCOVA was used to compare depth over time (using time as the co-variate) using IBM SPSS Statistics 17.0 (Insightful Corporation). Statistical differences among depths were identified using Fisher’s LSD test; however, due to the differences in depth and number of individuals within each site, the sites could not be compared.

More information about this dataset deployment

Funding

Award Number	Funding Source
OCE-0849776	NSF Division of Ocean Sciences

Instruments

None available yet

Parameters

Supplied Name	Supplied description	Supplied Units	Standard Name
site	Name of the reef where sampling occurred.	text	site
lat	Latitude of the site. North = positive.	decimal degrees	lat
lon	Longitude of the site. West = negative.	decimal degrees	lon
year	4-digit year of the survey. in YYYY format	unitless	year
month	2-digit month of the survey.	mm (01 to 12)	month_local
depth	Depth of the survey.	meters	depth
healthy_avg	Average percentage of sea fans per depth which were healthy.	%	no_bcodmo_term
bleached_avg	Average percentage of sea fans per depth which were bleached.	%	no_bcodmo_term
lg_purple_spts_avg	Average percentage of sea fans per depth which had Large Purple Spots.	%	no_bcodmo_term
MFPS_avg	Average percentage of sea fans per depth which had multi-focal purple spots (MFPS).	%	no_bcodmo_term
predation_avg	Average percentage of sea fans per depth which showed signs of predation.	%	no_bcodmo_term
other_avg	Average percentage of sea fans per depth which had other abnormalities. See Acquisition Description.	%	no_bcodmo_term
healthy_avg_sd	Standard deviation of healthy_avg.	%	no_bcodmo_term
bleached_avg_sd	Standard deviation of bleached_avg.	%	no_bcodmo_term
lg_purple_spts_avg_sd	Standard deviation of lg_purple_spts_avg.	%	no_bcodmo_term
MFPS_avg_sd	Standard deviation of MFPS_avg.	%	no_bcodmo_term
predation_avg_sd	Standard deviation of predation_avg.	%	no_bcodmo_term
other_avg_sd	Standard deviation of other_avg.	%	no_bcodmo_term
healthy	Percent healthy per transect.	%	no_bcodmo_term
bleached	Percent bleached per transect.	%	no_bcodmo_term
lg_purple_spts	Percent large purple spots (i.e. Aspergillosis-like) per transect.	%	no_bcodmo_term
MFPS	Percent multi-focal purple spots (MFPS) per transect.	%	no_bcodmo_term
predation	Percent sea fans with signs of predation per transect.	%	no_bcodmo_term
other	Percent sea fans with other abnormalities per transect. See Acquisition Description.	%	no_bcodmo_term
MFPS_log10	log 10 transformed percent MFPS per transect.	%	no_bcodmo_term

Database

Contribute Data

Dataset: sea_fan_survey
Deployment: Coral_Dive_HM

Dataset acquisition description

Dataset Processing Description

Database

Contribute Data

Dataset: sea_fan_surveyDeployment: Coral_Dive_HM

Dataset acquisition description

Dataset Processing Description

Dataset: sea_fan_survey
Deployment: Coral_Dive_HM