WISRD Research & Engineering Journal

Ex situ coral growth: Using of artificial intelligence for quantifying growth of small polyp stony (SPS) coral microfragments in a marine aquarium 2 L. Guiga, Dr. K. Griffs, J.A. Wise 1. Introduction Methods for measuring coral fragment growth over time must be identified to evaluate microfragmentation of coral as a viable technique for restoration of damaged reefs. We are investigating a method to measure microfragments grown in the lab in a 90-gallon saltwater tank. This research is part of a larger research group investigating whether the size of the initial coral fragment has an effect on the growth rate. (Figure 1.)

Figure 1 . The overarching question for the group research project is, “Does the initial fragment size affect coral growth rate?” To investigate and scale-up propagation of many different coral species through microfragmentation, investigators must have the means to determine if microfragmentation accelerates a particular species’ growth rate, and not all investigators have access to the most recent technology to assist with this kind of research, such as modern 3D scanners. Investigators at Mote Marine Lab Laboratory ( Koch, et al., 2021 ) surveyed methods that have been used to quantify coral growth and highlighted the benefit of 3D imaging. Table 1 from their paper has been included in Appendix A. We are investigating a 2D imaging analysis method, PlantCV (Plant Computer Vision), as a novel use case for this open software platform. PlantCV is described in Section 4. 1.1 Challenges/Considerations We identified the following as challenges to using image analysis: ● Manageable cost ● Camera: ○ Quality of camera and lens

2 Sponsored by the Wildwood Institute for STEM Research and Development (WISRD) and the Mariner Ocean Research Institute (MORI)

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