NCCOS Assessment: Effects of three pesticides on the survival and settlement behavior of Caribbean coral larvae (NCEI Accession 0303148)

This project investigates the lethal and sublethal effects of three pesticides (Thiamethomoxamine, Dinotefuran, and Acetamiprid) on the survival of the corals Arcropora cervicornis and Orbicella faveolata larvae after 48 hours of exposure and on the settlement behavior of Acropora cervicornis larvae after 7 days of exposure. This dataset includes coral counts at discrete time periods for each treatment: for the larval mortality assay, living coral larvae were counted at the experiment start (t=0) and end (t=48) of the 48-hour experiment; for the larval settlement assay, living coral larvae were counted at the experiment start (t=0), and throughout the 7-day experiment duration (t=48, t=72, t=96, t=144), and were counted according to their specific developmental morphologies at the experiment end (t=144). All larval mortality experiments were performed at the Florida Bay Interagency Science Center (Key Largo, FL); larval settlement experiments were performed at the NOAA Hollings Marine Laboratory (Charleston, SC). Acropora cervicornis larvae were obtained from the University of North Carolina Wilmington Reproduction and Evolutionary Ecology- Fogarty Lab in September 2022; Orbicella faveolata larvae were obtained from wild-caught spawn (North Dry Rocks Reef, Florida Keys) collected by the NOAA Southeast Fisheries Center in August 2022. Results from these experiments indicate that the three tested pesticides did not have any significant impact on larval survival or settlement behavior in the tested species.

Tags: 1133, 3ma40w, acropora cervicornis, atlantic ocean, bioeffects/ toxicity, biology, biosphere, chemical, chemical contaminants, coral, coral condition, coral disease andhealth consortium (cdhc): diagnostic metrics, coral larvae, coral mortality, coral reefs, coral reproduction, corals, country/territory, digital micoscope camera, dry rocks (25n080w0011), earth science, epidemiology and capacity building, esa listed species, florida, florida bay interagency science center, florida reef tract, florida reef tract (26n080w0007), fluorescent filter, key largo (25n080w0010), laboratory experiment, larvae, larval counts, larval settlement, marine biology, marine invertebrates, marine protected areas, marine toxicology, monroe county, mvx10 research macro zoom microscope with a 0.63x objective (olympus), national marine sanctuaries, nccos research data type, nccos research location, nccos research priority, nccos research topic, north atlantic ocean, north carolina, numeric data sets, ocean basin, oceanography, oceans, orbicella faveolata, pesticides, reef damage assessment, region, reproduction, reproductive ecology and evolution fogarty laboratory, scleractinia (stony corals), sexual reproduction, south atlantic bight, south atlantic bight (32n077w0001), south carolina, south carolina (32n077w0001), spawning, stressor impacts and mitigation, u.s. states and territories, united states of america, university of north carolina wilmington, upper florida keys, upper florida keys (24n080w0018), zoology
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce