species-specific feeding responses in caribbean coral recruits
Description
This dataset contains the raw experimental data supporting the manuscript "Species-specific heterotrophic feeding responses in sexually propagated coral recruits: implications for coral restoration and aquaculture." The study investigated heterotrophic feeding performance of sexually propagated Caribbean coral recruits cultured on artificial restoration substrates under controlled laboratory conditions. The study addressed two research questions. The first experiment tested whether different environmental feeding conditions, including aeration, alternating light cycles, and their combination, influence the capture rates of Artemia salina nauplii by coral recruits. The second experiment evaluated how prey availability affects feeding performance by exposing recruits of Orbicella faveolata and Orbicella annularis to increasing Artemia concentrations in order to estimate species-specific functional feeding responses using Michaelis–Menten models. The dataset includes measurements of coral species, substrate type and identifiers, polyp identifiers, projected polyp surface area, experimental date, feeding treatment, Artemia culture temperature, initial and remaining Artemia abundance, container volume, calculated prey uptake, and polyp counts before and after incubation. Control substrates without coral polyps were included to quantify passive prey loss during the experiments. The data demonstrate that environmental feeding conditions and prey availability both influence heterotrophic feeding performance of coral recruits. In the feeding-treatment experiment, the combination of aeration and alternating light cycles generally resulted in the highest prey capture rates, although responses differed among coral species. In the prey-concentration experiment, capture rates increased with increasing prey availability and approached saturation at higher prey concentrations, allowing estimation of species-specific maximum feeding rates and half-saturation constants. These data can be used to reproduce the statistical analyses and figures presented in the associated publication, compare feeding performance among coral species, investigate environmental drivers of heterotrophic feeding, and support the development of optimized feeding protocols for conservation aquaculture and coral reef restoration. Variable definitions, experimental treatments, and coding schemes are provided in the accompanying README file.