REGENERACION DE COLONIAS Y TRANSPLANTE DE FRAGMENTOS DE ACROPORA PALMATA (CNIDARIA: SCLERACTINIA) EN EL PARQUE NACIONAL NATURAL CORALES DEL ROSARIO, CARIBE COLOMBIANO

Abstract

The present study was done in order to study the posibility of recovering the coral species Acropora palmata in the Natural Park Corales del Rosario. The percentage of regeneration of 42 mechanically fragmented colonies, as well as the percentage of survival of 53 fragments of this species, was determined. The regeneration of tissue for 25 colonies fragmented between September and december 1992 {period 1) was obtained in three months; for the 17 colonies fragmented between march and may 1993 (period 2) the time was of two months. The fragments obtained from the donor colonies were submitted to 4 treatments. Treatment 1 consisted in tying the fragments with a cord to dead coral and transported to Kalua Island. For treatment 2 the fragments were put on sandy substrate and were tyed to a pole in Grande Island. In treatment 3 the fragments were tyed to dead coral by a cord and were transported to Grande Island. For treatment 4, the fragments were cemented to dead coral with the epoxic "Rally" cement. Treatment 1 showed a survival of 30% in 3 months and of 0% for the rest of the research. In treatment 2 the survival was of 0% on the first month. In treatment 3, the survival was of 40% in 3 months and 0% was found in the seventh month. In treatment 4, the survival was of 90% in the first month, 80% in two months and 70% in three months. The results obtained show that the donor colonies of the studied specie recovers rapidly to physical wounds and that the use of the technique with epoxic cement on the fragments for the recovery of the specie is recommended.