CSA Ocean Sciences Inc., a marine environmental consulting firm, recently concluded the experimental portion of a laboratory-based coral experiment as part of an ongoing project in Guam.  CSA scientists served as technical experts in the implementation of a coral dose response experiment, evaluating sedimentation stress in four species of Pacific corals.

Scientists collected coral specimens from the field, successfully acclimated approximately 800 small fragments in laboratory aquaria for several weeks, and conducted a pilot study prior to the experiment. During the experiment, corals were randomly distributed among 35 aquaria and subjected to daily doses of various concentrations of fine and/or coarse sediments for 4 weeks. Scientists conducted visual health assessments daily, during which gross morphological stress responses such as mucus production, bleaching, tissue swelling, etc. were scored for each specimen. In addition, 25% of experimental coral specimens were sacrificed weekly and processed for histopathological purposes.  Histopathological analysis of coral specimens using light microscopy is currently underway, as well as analysis of visual health assessment data.

Ms. Erin Hodel, CSA lead scientist on the project, stated, “This is a very interesting and important project in that it is the first study to evaluate sedimentation stress using histopathology for these four species of Pacific corals.”