Figure 2. Methodological pipeline used during the preservation and archiving of coral specimens for research and restoration purposes for various downstream analyses.

The orange columns on the left-side of the figure (i.e., columns B and C) indicate the methods used during the collection and archiving of coral fragments, categorized by the chemical preservatives and fixatives used and the method of temperature storage (i.e., room temperature (RT), frozen (F), refrigerated (RF), or oven dried (D)). For example, a specimen collected using the row 7 pipeline is immediately frozen using liquid nitrogen, and then subsequently stored in a conventional freezer (e.g., −80 °C) whereas a specimen collected using the row 20 pipeline is first stored in ethanol and then placed in a refrigerator at 4 °C. The remaining columns (i.e., columns D–AM) describe whether a specimen collected using a given pipeline is suitable for a variety of downstream measurements such as DNA analyses or chlorophyll quantification. Downstream analyses are categorized into three disciplines: (1) Omics, (2) Physiology, and (3) Microscopy and Imaging (i.e., row 2). These columns are further subdivided based on the specific type of coral material being used (i.e., coral host tissue (CH), algal symbionts (AS), microbiome (M), skeleton (SK) or gametes (G)). Five levels of appropriateness are herein described: Optimal (O), Acceptable (A), Undesirable (U), not acceptable (N) and unknown (?). These designations are based upon publish methodological data as well as the consensus scientific opinions of 30 coral scientists who attended the Coral Bleaching Research Coordination Network meeting in June 2020. The percentage of downstream analyses which were afforded an optimal or acceptable appropriate designation is shown in column AN. The total number of potential pipelines that are acceptable or optimal for a given downstream analysis are shown in row 59. The total number of potential pipelines for which the suitability is unknown is shown in row 60.