Efficiency of calcein tagging on juveniles of the sea urchins Diadema africanum and Paracentrotus lividus |
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| Authors: | Adriana Rodríguez José Carlos Hernández Sabrina Clemente |
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| Institution: | Biodiversidad, Ecología Marina y Conservación, Departamento de Biología Animal, Edafología y Geología UDI Ciencias Marinas, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain |
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| Abstract: | We evaluated the effectiveness of chemical tagging with the fluorescent marker calcein for two key species of herbivorous sea urchins, Diadema africanum and Paracentrotus lividus, to facilitate medium‐ and long‐term ecological experiments. In total, 98 juveniles of D. africanum and 98 P. lividus were tagged with this fluorescent marker, with 12 combinations of different tagging techniques (chemical bath or injection), concentrations of calcein (2, 10 and 20 mg · l?1), and soaking times (2, 4 and 24 h). Respective control treatments were conducted by means of seawater injection and bathing. The success of tagging was assessed after a month of feeding individuals ad libitum with the algae Dictyota sp. Sea urchins were dissected and their Aristotle's lanterns cleaned with 10% sodium hypochlorite to examine these structures under UV light using a binocular microscope. Each species was evaluated in terms of survival, percentage of tagged individuals and intensity of the resulting tag. The results showed that the method of soaking individuals of both species for 24 h in concentrations of calcein of 10 and 20 mg · l?1 gave the highest percentage survival (100%) and the resulting tags were clearly visible. |
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| Keywords: | Calcein
Diadema africanum
juveniles
Paracentrotus lividus
survival tagging |
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