PLEASE TAKE MY SURVEY

[JJC]

3D Printed Coral and Acoustic Enrichment to Aid in Coral Reef Restoration

I am currently a sophomore in high school and am enrolled in a college level science research course. I was planning a research project for this summer(2020), but due to the circumstances, the project is not feasible. My project was to test if 3D printed coral and the use of acoustic enrichment enhanced coral reef restoration. I planned on setting up an experiment in a real environment in Mexico(I will obtain permits as needed). Due to the circumstances with COVID-19, I hoping to gain more background knowledge that could be useful for my research and experiment next year. This survey is to help me obtain some background knowledge and feedback on my methodology. Participation in this survey is completely voluntary.

 

https://forms.gle/TV8PssatM7xgo1ry6

[Tired]

I'm pretty sure 3D printed coral isn't actually CORAL, just something for the corals to grow on. Can't imagine anyone can 3D print a living animal.

 

This isn't a very good format for you to get information in. You need to be directly contacting experts in the field, not just hoping someone like that trips over the survey. You're asking some fairly specific questions that the layperson is just not going to have good advice on. People who keep reef tanks are not generally also experts in wild reef restoration. 

[Tired]

That being said, some questions for you: 

What's your control? Are you going to have another area of printed coral frames without the speakers, and an area with speakers but no coral frames? 

 

How big do you expect each experimental area to be? Something the size of a basketball won't be enough of a sample to give you much.

 

How sure are you that someone is going to let you put these things in an area that's actually hospitable to coral? You can't just put them anywhere and expect coral to show up and do well. You have to put them in a place that coral will definitely do well in, and either have natural larvae already present, or transplant coral frags. Will anyone let you do that? 

 

Where are you going to get underwater speakers that will play for that long? 

 

Where are you going to get a recording of a healthy reef close to the area? 

 

Your article about the sounds says, essentially, that the sounds of a healthy reef can attract fish, which are good for the reef. How will you account for it if all your testing areas have the same amount of fish? For that matter, how will you know if the sounds attract more fish? Will you have a camera to watch them? 

 

What, exactly, are you testing? If you're testing whether the sounds of a healthy reef are good for a sickly reef, the answer is that it probably will help, if those sounds encourage local fish to take up residence. That's what your article about the sounds says. 

[coltnanoreef]

how are you going to measure/quantify the impact of the 3d coral and sound? Are you simply going to measure coral? Or count the amount of fish in the given area? there are so many variables to account for. weather, time of year, food, currents.. this seems like a big undertaking, and seems to have already been proven to be successful based on those articles, so i dont know what else you could add to those articles that they didnt cover already. i would focus more tightly and with an experiment you could control 100%. not unlike what BRS does in their studies. maybe find something they've never covered. having said that, good luck.