Zooxanthellae that open calcium channels: implications for reef corals

Zooxanthellae ultrastructure affected in bleached corals

Most reef-building corals are hermatypic: they harbour endosymbiotic algae of the dinoflagellates group (generally called zooxanthellae, genus Symbiodinium), within vacuoles in the gastroderm cells. Bleaching, loss of colour due to loss of these symbiotic algae and/or their photosynthetic pigments, on a large scale, appears to increase by intensity and geographic extent, certainly related to in...

Resource Partitioning by Reef Corals as Determined from Stable Isotope Composition II. ~l5N of Zooxanthellae and Animal Tissue versus Depth

The pattern of resource partitioning versus depth for corals collected in February, 1983, from Jamaica was investigated by analyzing their stable nitrogen isotope composition. Observations were made on isolated zooxanthellae and corresponding algae-free animal tissue from nine species of symbiotic corals at four depths over a 50-m bathymetric range, and from a nonsymbiotic coral at 1 m. /5 N va...

Phosphomonoesterases in Reef-Building Corals.

Acclimatization in tropical reef corals

Global climate change (GCC) is the most widespread environmental peril facing tropical coral reefs, yet the capacity of scleractinian corals to survive the challenge is not well understood. Acclimatization is a primary mechanism by which organisms match their physiology in a timely and beneficial way to a rapidly changing environment, and so it is not surprising that the question ‘can corals ac...

Seasonal reproduction in equatorial reef corals

J.R. GUEST1*, A.H. BAIRD2, B.P.L. GOH3 and L.M. CHOU4 School of Biology and Psychology, Division of Biology, King George VI Building, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, NE1 7RU, UK Tel. +44 (791) 374-1557; email: [email protected] Centre for Coral Reef Biodiversity, Department of Marine Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia Natural Sciences, National...