'Blue' coral -Reply

[dd76]

----------- Begin Forwarded Message ------------
Date: Tue, 09 Jun 98 11:18 EDT
From: Deborah_G_DANAHER at umail.umd.edu (dd76)
Subject: Re: 'Blue' coral -Reply 
To: "Jan Korrubel" <KorrubelJ at science.unp.ac.za>
cc: cbingman at netcom.com
In-Reply-To: <s57cfbd6.098 at mtp.unp.ac.za> 

I've observed this phenomenon in Porites app. as well as Agaricia spp. at
several sites around the Caribbean including the silty Red Bouy area of
Discovery Bay, but most notably off the Habana City waterfront.  I was
fortunate to have been able to dive there in 1995.  The reef profile along
the waterfron is low relief spur 'n groove, with long narrow spurs running a
long, low gradient down and leveling at 30 m  or so.  All of the pollution
in Cuba is confined to river outflows and the underwater scene on the
waterfront is like a war zone.  Few living corals shallower that about 20 m,
but happier reef relief deeper than that.  The Porites and Agaricids are
stunning with their flourescent pink edges that I believe represent
bacterial associations flourishing in the high nutrient load.


I've also worked extensively with the Caribbean Mussids which are the most
dramatically pigmented corals in the region. I've regularly observed
flourescent pigments in them and have several samples fixed in prep for TEM
to see if bacterial populations are localized intra/intercellularly.  But I
don't currently hav funding for this.


Deborah Danaher
dd76 at umail.umd.edu




 >In addition to
the blue, we also noticed numerous _Porites_
>with a luminescent/flourescent pink border - can this be attributed to
>the same phenomenon?
>
>Jan Korrubel >Michael Samways > >------------ End Forwarded Message -------------