Acropora aspera coral fecundity in reef slope and reef flat experimental transplants in Heron Island (Southern Great Barrier Reef)

The dataset contains information of Acropora aspera coral fecundity in branches from a reciprocal transplant experiment between reef slope and reef flat habitats conducted in November 2021 on Heron Island, Southern Great Barrier Reef (Capricorn Bunker). This experiment aims to discern environmental and genetic influences on habitat differences in coral fecundity (see other dataset from same authors: Acropora aspera coral fecundity in reef slope and reef flat habitats in Heron Island (Southern Great Barrier Reef)).\nFor this experiment, a total of 40x branches were collected from a total of 20x Acropora aspera colonies for reciprocal transplant experiments between the reef flat and the reef slope. Following spawning in November 2021, branches were sampled from previously tagged Acropora aspera colonies in the following way, for each site (2x sites): \n-\t5x colonies were selected in the reef flat and 5x colonies were selected on the reef slope among the tagged monitored colonies\n-\tFor each selected colony, 2x branches were collected:\no\t 1x branch per colony was reattached to habitat of origin as a control\no\t 1x branch per colony was reattached to the opposite habitat as a transplant\n\nSamples are still to be collected from each transplant to assess fecundity / reproductive plasticity. Once samples are fixed in 5% formalin and seawater, they are to be decalcified in 3-10% hydrochloric acid. For each decalcified sample, 30 polyps are randomly selected and inspected for presence/absence of eggs to estimate percentages of reproductive polyps within a branch. Among the polyps inspected for each sample, a minimum of 10 gravid polyps are dissected under the microscope to identify, count, and measure ovaries, spermaries, and eggs. Scaled pictures of each polyp are taken with a camera for measurements. For size measurements, the width and length of each element are recorded. Measurements are performed with ImageJ.\n\nAccess:\nMetadata is fully public. Data files will be made fully public once the research has been published.\nFor special requests, please directly contact the Data Custodian and CC the Project Leader.\n\nLineage: NA – the dataset is the raw dataset prior to cleaning. It contains all necessary information to conduct cleaning by the user.