Scientists Lecture at Buck Island

Buck Island Reef National Monument has announced that two scientists from a research team will lecture this evening. Throughout July and August, biologists from California Polytechnic State University in partnership with the University of the Virgin Islands will be studying grazing scars on live coral tissues at several locations around Buck Island. The research team, led by Cal Tech Department of Biological Sciences assistant professor Prof. Ben Ruttenberg and graduate student Madelyn Roycroft, will perform coral surveys and benthic photoquadrat surveys; they will characterize coral colonies and benthic habitats surrounding coral colonies. The team will count and estimate the sizes of parrotfish and record the habitat types encountered. The study will provide insight into the rates of parrotfish corallivory or the eating of coral.