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Coloring coral larvae allows tracking of local dispersal and settlement
Quantifying patterns of dispersal and settlement in marine benthic invertebrates is challenging, largely due the complexity of life history traits, small sizes of larvae (less than 1 mm), and potential for large-scale dispersal (greater than 100 km) in the marine environment. Doropoulos and Roff develop a novel method that allows for immediate differentiation and visual tracking of large numbers of coral larvae (millions to billions) from dispersal to settlement. Neutral red and Nile blue stains were extremely effective in coloring larvae, with minimal impacts on survival and settlement following optimization of incubation times and stain concentrations. Field validation to wild-captured larvae from the Great Barrier Reef demonstrates the efficacy of staining across diverse taxa. The method provides a simple, rapid (less than 60 minutes), low-cost (approximately one US dollar per 100,000 larvae) tool to color coral larvae that facilitates a wide range of de novo laboratory and field studies of larval behavior and ecology with potential applications for conservation planning and understanding patterns of connectivity. The lefthand column of the image shows Nile blue (top), unstained (middle) and neutral red (bottom) free-swimming Acropora anthocercis larvae. The central column shows newly metamorphosed A. anthocercis, similarly treated. The righthand column shows mixed larvae of Platygyra sinensis (top), Dipsastraea favus (middle) and Coelastrea aspera (bottom).
Image Credit: pbio.3001907
Citation: (2023) PLoS Biology Issue Image | Vol. 20(12) January 2023. PLoS Biol 20(12): ev20.i12. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pbio.v20.i12
Published: January 12, 2023
Copyright: © 2023 . This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Quantifying patterns of dispersal and settlement in marine benthic invertebrates is challenging, largely due the complexity of life history traits, small sizes of larvae (less than 1 mm), and potential for large-scale dispersal (greater than 100 km) in the marine environment. Doropoulos and Roff develop a novel method that allows for immediate differentiation and visual tracking of large numbers of coral larvae (millions to billions) from dispersal to settlement. Neutral red and Nile blue stains were extremely effective in coloring larvae, with minimal impacts on survival and settlement following optimization of incubation times and stain concentrations. Field validation to wild-captured larvae from the Great Barrier Reef demonstrates the efficacy of staining across diverse taxa. The method provides a simple, rapid (less than 60 minutes), low-cost (approximately one US dollar per 100,000 larvae) tool to color coral larvae that facilitates a wide range of de novo laboratory and field studies of larval behavior and ecology with potential applications for conservation planning and understanding patterns of connectivity. The lefthand column of the image shows Nile blue (top), unstained (middle) and neutral red (bottom) free-swimming Acropora anthocercis larvae. The central column shows newly metamorphosed A. anthocercis, similarly treated. The righthand column shows mixed larvae of Platygyra sinensis (top), Dipsastraea favus (middle) and Coelastrea aspera (bottom).
Image Credit: pbio.3001907