Bulk density experiment

Studies context

This experiment is part of the POC ID Relative Abundance Characterization project. The goal of this project is to describe the different species present in the lagoon of Mo’orea at 12 different sites.

The collected samples were prepared following protocol S.E.M

. All samples come from the remaining part of the skeleton pieces that were taken for SEM and micro-CT analyses. The samples are not all the same size due to the size variation of the original specimens (small colonies, large colonies).

A total of 1836 samples have been processed. The number of samples per site also varies depending on sample availability.

The protocol used for this experiment comes from Jose de Jesús A. Tortolero-Langarica et al. 2017

Protocol:

Tools use for the experiement ran at GUMP Field station Mo’orea FP.

Equipment:

• Saucepan (2x) / one for heating the water, one for melting the wax (needs to be kept at 105ºC)
• Hot plate (Techwood 1500W)
• Digital thermometer
• High-resolution balance (Mettler Toledo / Excellence Plus XP203S)
• Wax
• Chiller to keep the temperature at 20ºC (DI water)
• Platform to place the samples for weighing in DI water

Exemple of Bulk density result on Pocillopora spp..