Julian Sprung's email

Julian Sprung JSprung at compuserve.com
Fri Sep 15 09:53:28 EDT 2000


Dear list,

I agree that the surprizing recovery is primarily an effect of surviving
tissue in the shade or deep in the skeleton, but thought I'd add a little
more to the rebirth concept. 

Consider also the (not new?) idea that corals may sometimes be "re-born" by
recruiting onto the skeletons of recently killed colonies and then rapidly
spreading tissue to cover the exposed skeleton. Since mass temp induced
bleaching/death occurs approximately at the same time as mass spawning, it
is POSSSIBLE (particularly for Pocilloporids I think) to repopulate heads
that have died just a few days earlier, with minimal interference from
algae. Dying Pocilloporids also tend to show polyp bail out (with the
possibility of recruiting) while Acroporids simply rot. 

I'm sure that Ove's observation of Seriatopora was just shaded tissue
regrowth, however.

One of the most amazing re-births I've witnessed occurs in Psammocora. It
apparently has deep tissue. I have seen colonies (yes plural, at various
times) apparently die completely and then send out tissue in spots all over
the surface that grow and recover the colony. These are aquarium
observations. 

Julian



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