WAMSI 2 - Dredging Node - Project 7.4 - Effects of Dredging Related Pressures on Critical Ecological Processes for Coral - DEVELOPMENT STUDIES, Western Australia

Data will be in the form of a report, which will be a secured (printable, non-editable), searchable, Portable Document Format (PDF) showing the results of the experiments. Development studies (Project 7.4): Little is known of the sensitivity of floating coral embryos and the early development of swimming coral larvae to elevated suspended particulates observed during dredging operations. The objective of Project 7.4 is to examine if larval development of corals gametes is affected by water quality conditions that can occur during dredging programs. Larval development experiments will be conducted with two broadcast spawning species and involve examining development success in response to a realistic range of TSS concentrations and PSDs over an incubation period of several days. Experiments will involve multiple TSS concentrations spanning the range that can occur during dredging programs (see project 7.2) and with a range of different particle size distributions and sediment types. Experiments will be conducted each year (for 3 consecutive years) during the coral spawning period (October - December of 2013, 2014, and 2015).