Coral populations are in decline due to environmental changes and biological attacks by predators and infectious diseases. Here, we report a localized bloom of the benthic filamentous cyanobacterium Moorea bouillonii (formerly Lyngbya bouillonii) observed exclusively on the gorgonian (sea fan) coral Annella reticulata at around 20 m depth in Japan. The degree of infection has reached 26% among ...

MOTIVATION Current sequencing technologies produce a large number of erroneous reads. The sequencing errors present a major challenge in utilizing the data in de novo sequencing projects as assemblers have difficulties in dealing with errors. RESULTS We present Coral which corrects sequencing errors by forming multiple alignments. Unlike previous tools for error correction, Coral can utilize ...

We report a facile method for the synthesis of Pd nanostructures with highly open structure and huge surface area by reducing Na₂PdCl₄ with ascorbic acid and using cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) as a surfactant in an aqueous solution. The prepared Pd nanostructures had an average overall size of 70 nm and were composed of dozens of needle-like thin arms, originating from the same core, with an ...

coral is one of the richest ecosystems in the world and divided into two major groups. first group consist of soft corals living in tropical and semitropical oceans and seas. people in the past used these kinds of coral to make jewelry and decorative objects. second group contains hard coral which have been used as construction material in coastal zones. this paper presents the role of corals i...

In this critical and timely review, the effects of anisotropic silver nanostructures on the emission intensity and photostability of a key fluorophore that is frequently used in many biological assays is examined. The silver nanostructures consist of triangular, rod-like, and fractal-like nanoparticles of silver deposited on conventional glass substrates. The close proximity to silver nanostruc...

BACKGROUND Coral reefs have exceptional biodiversity, support the livelihoods of millions of people, and are threatened by multiple human activities on land (e.g. farming) and in the sea (e.g. overfishing). Most conservation efforts occur at local scales and, when effective, can increase the resilience of coral reefs to global threats such as climate change (e.g. warming water and ocean acidifi...

During the last several decades corals have been in decline and at least one-third of all coral species are now threatened by extinction. Coral disease has been a major contributor to this threat, but little is known about the responsible pathogens. To date most research has focused on bacterial and fungal diseases; however, viruses may also be important for coral health. Using a combination of...

We report on various self-assembled In(Ga)As nanostructures by droplet epitaxy on GaAs substrates using molecular beam epitaxy. Depending on the growth condition and index of surfaces, various nanostructures can be fabricated: quantum dots (QDs), ring-like and holed-triangular nanostructures. At near room temperatures, by limiting surface diffusion of adatoms, the size of In droplets suitable f...

Multispectral images of natural scenes were collected from both forests and coral reefs. We varied the wavelength position of receptors in hypothetical dichromatic visual systems and, for each receptor pair estimated the percentage of discriminable points in natural scenes. The optimal spectral tuning predicted by this model results in photoreceptor pairs very like those of forest dwelling, dic...

Coral diseases are a leading factor contributing to the global decline of coral reefs, and yet mechanisms of disease transmission remain poorly understood. This study tested whether zooplankton can act as a vector for white band disease (WBD) in Acropora cervicornis. Natural zooplankton communities were collected from a coral reef in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Half of the zooplankton were treated ...