Skip to main content
Dryad

2D and 3D coral models imaged in Curaçao: George, Mullinix, et al PeerJ 2021

Cite this dataset

George, Emma E. et al. (2021). 2D and 3D coral models imaged in Curaçao: George, Mullinix, et al PeerJ 2021 [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5x69p8d2x

Abstract

Abstract from the article associated with the dataset: George, Mullinix, et al PeerJ 2021.

Reef-building corals are ecosystem engineers that compete with other benthic or- ganisms for space and resources. Corals harvest energy through their surface by photosynthesis and heterotrophic feeding, and they divert part of this energy to defend their outer colony perimeter against competitors. Here, we hypothesized that corals with a larger space-filling surface and smaller perimeters increase energy gain while reducing the exposure to competitors. This predicted an association between these two geometric properties of corals and the competitive outcome against other benthic organisms. To test the prediction, fifty coral colonies from the Caribbean island of Curac ̧ao were rendered using digital 3D and 2D reconstructions. The surface areas, perimeters, box-counting dimensions (as a proxy of space-filling property), and other geometric properties were extracted and analyzed with respect to the percentage of the perimeter losing or winning against competitors based on the coral tissue apparent growth or damage. The increase in surface space-filling dimension was the only significant single indicator of coral winning outcomes, but the combination of surface space-filling dimension with perimeter length increased the statistical prediction of coral competition outcomes. Corals with larger surface space-filling dimensions (Ds > 2) and smaller perimeters displayed more winning outcomes, confirming the initial hypothesis. We propose that the space-filling property of coral surfaces complemented with other proxies of coral competitiveness, such as life history traits, will provide a more accurate quantitative characterization of coral competition outcomes on coral reefs. This framework also applies to other organisms or ecological systems that rely on complex surfaces to obtain energy for competition.

Usage notes

For the compressed files:

- Reconstruction of the split file can be accomplished by issuing the command cat *.tar.bz2*part-a* > 3D_model_stl_data.tar.bz2

- Unzipping the compressed files can be accomplished by issuing the command tar -jxvf *.tar.bz2

Funding

National Science Foundation, Award: 1951678

Pacific Institute For Research and Evaluation

NSF Partnerships for International Research and Education Grant, Award: 1243541

National Science Foundation, Award: DUE-1259951

University of British Columbia International Doctoral Fellowship