Lawrence University Marine Program
Student Group Project Topics



Damage to corals
        Bleaching by type, extent, species affected, locations on reef

Home ranges and site specificity
        Blue headed wrasse, Urchins, Chitons, Cling crabs

Reproductive behavior -- Sgt. Majors
        Mating, spawning, guarding and tending eggs

Time energy budgets -- (e.g. Four-eyed butterfly fish)
        Feeding and movement patterns, measurement of oxygen consumption

Damselfish territoriality
        Naturalistic observation or manipulation (model bottle)
        Types of territories in varying sites on reef
        Reactions to herbivores vs. carnivores

Feeding Energetics
        Enclosures with algae covered coral, algivores--damselfish and urchins, oxygen consumption measurements

Production/Respiration ratios
        A model of reef "behavior" in the upside-down jellyfish -- daytime production and night-time respiration

Opportunistic feeding behavior
        Urchins (carnivores) and Algae (herbivores) placed in various reef locations

Anemone feeding -- using giant Caribbean anemone and various foods
        Food preferences, rates of ingestion, rates of digestion

Symbionts in anemones/shrimp
        Types, behavior, dislocation and re-orientation experiments

Sponge feeding
        Types of sponges eaten, who is eating them, collect spicules from sponges (eaten and non-eating types) for later analysis

Cleaner stations
        Locations, types of organisms (shrimp and/or fish) doing cleaning, types of fish being cleaned, solicitation behaviors, cleaning
        behavior

Schooling behavior
        Species composition (homospecific and heterospecific), behavior of schools, locations of schools, reaction to predators

Coral competition
        Random quadrat method, nearest neighbor analysis of adjacencies, observation of actual damage

Coral morphology
        Relation to depth, light levels, types of corals capable of morphological plasticity, measurement of surface area, abundance at
        various depths

Sediment on the reef
        Measurement of sedimentation types and levels at various locations, observation of sediment processors (sea cucumbers, parrot
        fish), reactions of various corals to sedimentation (naturalistic observation and manipulation)


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