Micro-CT reconstruction reveals the colony pattern regulations of four dominant reef-building corals.

ABSTRACT: Colonies are the basic geometric building blocks of coral reefs. However, the forming regulations of both colonies and reefs are still not understood adequately. Therefore, in this study, we reconstructed 25 samples using high-resolution micro-computed tomography to investigate coral growth patterns and parameters. Our skeleton and canal reconstructions revealed the characteristics of different coral species, and we further visualized the growth axes and growth rings to understand the coral growth directions. We drew a skeleton grayscale map and calculated the coral skeleton void ratios to ascertain the skeletal diversity, devising a method to quantify coral growth. On the basis of the three-dimensional (3D) reconstructions and growth parameters, we investigated the growth strategies of di

SUBMITTER: Li Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8601894 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature