Research Symposium

BIO

Interested in the natural science perspective of law enforcement, as well as the use of scientific evidence to solve crimes, I would like to look more into the forensic sciences, particularly the biology sector.

Disease Frequency in Restored vs. Wild Staghorn (Acropora cervicornis) Sites in Bonaire, Dutch Caribbean

Abstract

For the past few decades, coral mortality has increased drastically. According to other studies, corals, such as Acropora cervicornis, a major framework coral in the Caribbean, have decreased in numbers as a result of various stress factors, including disease. In our study, we looked at whether there was a difference in disease presence between natural sites and restored sites, and we hypothesized that there would be a higher presence of disease within natural sites compared to restored sites. We also looked into whether the percentage of dead A. cervicornis was the reasoning being the difference in disease presence between the two types of sites. Once we collected our data, we carried out a presence and absence test to examine the difference in disease frequency between natural sites and restored sites. We also conducted a two-tailed, unpaired t-test to see if there was any difference between natural and restored sites in regards to the percentage of dead A. cervicornis, which we followed with a correlation analysis to see if there was a positive correlation between disease frequency and percentage of dead A. cervicornis. The results that we gathered allowed us to better understand the conditions A. cervicornis are under, and they could potentially aid in the recovery of the vulnerable framework coral.

Keywords: Coral bleaching, disease, stressors, restoration