A computational method for quantifying morphological variation in scleractinian corals |
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Authors: | K J Kruszyński J A Kaandorp R van Liere |
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Institution: | (1) Center for Mathematics and Computer Science, Kruislaan 413, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands;(2) Section Computational Science, Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 403, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands |
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Abstract: | Morphological variation in marine sessile organisms is frequently related to environmental factors. Quantifying such variation
is relevant in a range of ecological studies. For example, analyzing the growth form of fossil organisms may indicate the
state of the physical environment in which the organism lived. A quantitative morphological comparison is important in studies
where marine sessile organisms are transplanted from one environment to another. This study presents a method for the quantitative
analysis of three-dimensional (3D) images of scleractinian corals obtained with X-ray Computed Tomography scanning techniques.
The advantage of Computed Tomography scanning is that a full 3D image of a complex branching object, including internal structures,
can be obtained with a very high precision. There are several complications in the analysis of this data set. In the analysis
of a complex branching object, landmark-based methods usually do not work and different approaches are required where various
artifacts (for example cavities, holes in the skeleton, scanning artifacts, etc.) in the data set have to be removed before
the analysis. A method is presented, which is based on the construction of a medial axis and a combination of image-processing
techniques for the analysis of a 3D image of a complex branching object where the complications mentioned above can be overcome.
The method is tested on a range of 3D images of samples of the branching scleractinian coral Madracis mirabilis collected at different depths. It is demonstrated that the morphological variation of these samples can be quantified, and
that biologically relevant morphological characteristics, like branch-spacing and surface/volume ratios, can be computed.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. |
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Keywords: | Scleractinian corals Morphological variation Morphological analysis of indeterminate growth forms X-ray Computed tomography scanning |
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