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Project properties |
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| Title | Sound as settlement cue for coral larvae |
| Group | Marine Animal Ecology |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 24-39 |
| Supervisor(s) | Jeroen Hubert |
| Examiner(s) | Tinka Murk, Reindert Nijland, Ronald Osinga, Rosa van der Ven, Diede Maas |
| Contact info | jeroen.hubert@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2024/05/01 |
| End date | 2025/05/01 |
| Description | Corals start their lives as pelagic larvae and must find a suitable location to settle were they stay for the rest of their lives. Underwater sound from coral reefs may be an important cue which indicates the suitability of an area. Several bivalve larvae and reef fishes have already been shown to use sound as settlement cue or attractant. Such indications also exist for coral larvae, but well controlled experiments are lacking. Wageningen University has labs were golfball corals are bred successfully, we aim to use the larvae for settlement experiments during playback of reef sounds and controls. Potentially, we can also look into interaction effects with known chemical settlement cues and/or look into more detailed behaviour of the larvae. The candidate(s) will prepare and run the experiments, analyze the settlement results and the soundfield in the tanks. |
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