Photophysiology of a coral symbiont under multiple stressors – Sarah Tanja’s Open Lab Notebook

Author

Sarah Tanja

Modified

October 8, 2026

https://github.com/sarahtanja/coral-leachate-heat

This project is a multiple-stressor experiment conducted in July 2024 at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) in Kaneohe Bay.

In this experiment, I exposed a total of 60 coral nubbins to PVC leachate and thermal stress for 96 hours. I measured the performance of the coral symbionts’ photosynthetic efficiency (Fv/Fm), and non-photochemical quenching (via quasi dark-adapted rapid light curves) daily with the Walz Diving PAM II during the exposure. At the end of the 96 hour exposure, I flash-froze whole nubbins in liquid nitrogen to conduct RNAseq analysis of the symbiont’s gene expression.

The data and code files for this project are organized on GitHub at https://github.com/sarahtanja/coral-leachate-heat

Date	Title	Categories	Reading Time
July 10, 2024	HOBO logger calibrations	protocols, records	12 min
July 9, 2024	Experiment Log	coral	1 min

---
title: "Photophysiology of a coral symbiont under multiple stressors"
subtitle: "Exploring Montipora capitata coral symbiont photosynthesis under PVC leachate and thermal stress exposures"
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:::: {#description}
<div>

This project is a multiple-stressor experiment conducted in July 2024 at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) in Kaneohe Bay.

</div>

In this experiment, I exposed a total of 60 coral nubbins to PVC leachate and thermal stress for 96 hours. I measured the performance of the coral symbionts' photosynthetic efficiency (Fv/Fm), and non-photochemical quenching (via quasi dark-adapted rapid light curves) daily with the Walz Diving PAM II during the exposure. At the end of the 96 hour exposure, I flash-froze whole nubbins in liquid nitrogen to conduct RNAseq analysis of the symbiont's gene expression.

The data and code files for this project are organized on GitHub at <https://github.com/sarahtanja/coral-leachate-heat>
::::

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