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METHODS article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Coral Reef Research
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1407537

Quantifying Attributes of Boring Bivalve Populations in Corals Using Micro-Computed Tomography

Provisionally accepted
Netanel Kramer Netanel Kramer 1,2*Tal Amit Tal Amit 1,3Noga Gavrieli Noga Gavrieli 1Maya Gross Maya Gross 1Daniel Wangpraseurt Daniel Wangpraseurt 2,4Yossi Loya Yossi Loya 1
  • 1 Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
  • 2 University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States
  • 3 Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat, Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences, University of Haifa, Eilat, Israel
  • 4 Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Bioerosion plays a crucial factor in shaping the structure and function of coral reef ecosystems, with bioeroders actively altering both the physical and ecological dynamics of coral substrates.Despite their importance, studying internal bioeroders in corals presents significant challenges owing to their cryptic nature within the skeletal structures. Additionally, invasive methods are often required to reveal the subtle and microscopic bioerosive alterations they induce in calcium carbonate substrates. Here, we demonstrate the effectiveness of high-resolution micro-computed tomography (μCT) in quantifying the abundance, size, distribution, and growth directions of coral bioeroders such as cryptic calcareous bivalves in the northern Red Sea. We scanned three coral species inhabited with by bioeroders, followed by the utilization of three-dimensional image analysis software to identify, count, and measure each bivalve within the coral skeleton, along with quantifying boring cavity volumes. We revealed that μCT captures small boring cavities (< 1mm), providing more accurate abundance estimates of live and dead boring bivalves than the skeleton decalcification technique, with the added benefits of being rapid and non-destructive in contrast to traditional methods. Furthermore, measurements of empty cavity volumes enabled the estimations of the contribution of bioeroders to the overall coral skeletal porosity. Overall, our study highlights μCT as a practical and effective tool for studying cryptic coral bioeroders, providing novel ecological insights into bioeroder population ecology and coral-bioeroder interactions.

    Keywords: coral reefs, Bioerosion, Micro-computed tomography, 3D imaging, Symbiosis

    Received: 26 Mar 2024; Accepted: 09 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kramer, Amit, Gavrieli, Gross, Wangpraseurt and Loya. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Netanel Kramer, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.