Not a whole lot of work has been done on Montipora flabellata in Kaneohe Bay, which is much less abundant than Montipora capitata. Nevertheless, M. capitata hosts symbionts from at least two clades of Symbiodinium, and so it is possible that M. flabellata also has flexible symbioses. To get an initial idea of what Symbiodinium clades are present in M. flabellata, I am collecting some small tissue samples from fragments that are now bleached, some that did not bleach, and some that bleached and recovered, and are being maintained in experimental tanks at the Point Lab. I will extract DNA and run qPCR assays to determine the relative abundance of clade C and/or D in these samples.

Samples collected:

SampleID Colony ID Origin Status Note
660 P   bleached  
661 P   bleached  
662 P   bleached  
663 A HIMB recovered tip
664 A HIMB recovered edge
665 A HIMB recovered dark edge
666 1   did not bleach  
667 1   did not bleach  
668 1   did not bleach  
669 2   did not bleach 364 edge
670 2   did not bleach 359 edge - unhealthy
671 2   did not bleach 355 tip

Small tissue samples were collected in 1% SDS in DNAB, and immediately incubated at 65°C for 1.5 hrs.