NOAA Coral Disease Health Consortium

Laceration Regeneration Assay. Part 1: Lab and field operations. Part 2: ImageJ and data analysis

2014

NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program

Video. The playback of this video requires Windows Media Player. To view this video, please check whether you have the player installed on your computer, iPhone or iPad. 508 Compliance advisory: The video is closed captioned for the hearing impaired.

"This 28-minute video demonstrates a simple low-cost technique for assessing the general health of corals. Laceration wounds are a common occurrence on corals from predation such as fish bites, diver interactions, scientific sampling, vessel damage or natural disturbances, such as hurricanes. The ability of corals to quickly heal wounds is a sign of their general good health. The Laceration Regeneration Assay (LRA) is used to provide a quantitative measure of coral health based on the healing rate of a defined laceration. The LRA is based on repeated photo-documentation of the laceration during the healing process to determine the healing rate. Included in part 1 of this video are: A list of supplies, equipment, and the acquisition of permits Laboratory preparation of tools and supplies Procedures used on location Tips for marking and mapping colonies Techniques to create uniform lacerations, and Time sequence photographs of lacerations Part 2 of this video shows image analysis, data acquisition and data analysis for determining tissue regeneration rates of the biopsy laceration. ImageJ free public software from the National Institutes of Health and a custom macro is used for measuring the laceration area. The use of Microsoft Excel software to calculate regerneration rate from the digital photo image analysis output is also provided. 508 Compliance advisory: This video is closed captioned for the hearing impaired. Supplementary information and the Macro for ImageJ may be found at NOAAs Coral Disease and Health Consortium (CDHC) website: http://cdhc.noaa.gov/education/protocols.aspx."

FY2012 CRCP Project ID 200; Project Title: Coral Disease and Health Consortium: Diagnostics, Training and Technology Transfer; Principal Investigator: Cheryl Woodley