SGER: Exploratory research in the use of neutrally buoyant magnetic beads to track dispersal of planktonic organisms

这项探索性研究小额赠款为该项目提供资金，用于2004年8月在佛罗里达群岛进行大规模产卵事件后进行实地研究，追踪珊瑚幼虫的扩散情况。NOAA/NURP、NURC/UNCW和佛罗里达群岛国家海洋保护区正在支持整个项目的各个组成部分。这个SGER提供了补充资金来测试一个新概念，即使用珊瑚幼虫的大小和浮力的磁性颗粒，以及一系列磁性收集器，来测量珊瑚幼虫的潜在时间积分扩散模式。这是一种概念上的新方法，如果它有效，可以应用于许多类型的扩散研究。这一发展有可能构成生物海洋学研究现有方法的重大进展。

This Small Grant for Exploratory Research award provides funding for the PI to conduct a field study to track the dispersal of coral larvae after a mass-spawning event in the Florida Keys in August 2004. NOAA/NURP, NURC/UNCW and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary are supporting various components of the overall project. This SGER provides supplementary funding to test a new concept, of using magnetic particles of the size and buoyancy of the coral larvae, and an array of magnetic collectors, to measure the potential time-integrated dispersal patterns of the coral larvae. This is a conceptually new method that if it works, can be applied to many types of dispersal studies. The development has the potential to constitute a major advance in methods available for biological oceanographic studies.