[Coral-List] re: Palythoa/zoanthid bleaching

James Reimer jreimer at jamstec.go.jp
Mon Sep 12 21:03:18 EDT 2005


Dear Dr. Pecheux and coral-listers,

Regarding your comments on Palythoa bleaching, just a few observations (mostly anecdotal) for you. From what I have seen in southern Japan, Palythoa spp. seem to vary quite a bit even from week to week in color - often with "patchy" bleaching or whole colony bleaching in summer, with no regular or obvious distribution to the bleaching (i.e. depth, lighting etc.). However, these colonies always seem to recover. Palythoa in the Indian Ocean had been shown to be flexible in their association with Symbiodinium 
(see Burnett 2002), so maybe that is affecting what I have seen in the Pacific. The other observation of note is that (at least in s. Japan) Palythoa spp. live much higher up in the intertidal zone than almost any coral or zoanthid I have seen, and in tide pools where summer water temperatures regularly exceed 40C  - and seem to be thriving. I would guess there is some kind of flexibility with symbionts allowing this..

 Anyways, would be interested to hear about what others have seen.

Cheers,

James Reimer
JSPS Fellow
Marine Ecology and Biology Research Program
JAMSTEC
2-15 Natsushima
Yokosuka, Japan
e-mail: jreimer at jamstec.go.jp


Message: 2 
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 2004 07:18:35 +0200 
From: Martin P?cheux <martin.pecheux at free.fr> 
Subject: [Coral-List] Palythoa bleaching ?? and ascidians ???? 
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov 
Message-ID: <41428AAA.C748985B at free.fr> 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; x-mac-type="54455854"; 
        x-mac-creator="4D4F5353" 

Dear divers, 

Edwin Ervin (email the 9/9/05)  mentions Palythoa caribbaeorum as 
bleaching in Puerto Rico. I had just prepared this email few days 
before: 
I did not read a mention of bleaching of Palythoa spp. since a very long 
time. In the 1980s to around 〜1995, many publications quoted it as 
bleaching, and often the worst. Would it be a focus of observers on hard 
corals? or are they less? or would have they adapted? or whatever ? I 
attach some importance as they have the symbionts in the ectoderm, so 
deducing less O2 or O. radicals concentration, shorter CO2/HCO3 pathway, 
in particular during bleaching doldrum/low water agitation time (or 
could it be the reverse?). Even anecdotical reports are wellcome. 

Also, there is still just one report of bleaching of prochordate 
Ascidians (in didemids), symbiotic with the strange 
"prokaryotic-eukaryotic" Prochloron. Would some body have also observed 
it ? (in GOREAU, T. J., and HAYES, R. L., 1995. Coral reef bleaching in 
the South Central Pacific during 1994. Coral Reef Initiative, US Dept. 
State, Washington DC, USA. 201pp) 

Thanks observers, 

Dr. Martin P鹹heux 
Institut des Foraminif鑽es Symbiotiques 
16, rue de la Fontaine de l'Esp駻ance, 92160 Antony, France 
martin.pecheux at free.fr 
+33(0) 8711 804 32 
Publications at  www.reefbase.org in which Review on Reef Bleaching, 
214p. 

(Martin P鹹heux means King-Fishex. I am still not Web footed) 

XX % REDUCTION OF HUMAN CO2 SOURCES IN YEAR 20XX 


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