[Coral-List] coral bleaching: response to Goreau
Margie Atkinson
margiea at gbrmpa.gov.au
Thu Jun 1 00:09:12 EDT 2006
Dear Tom
I take your point that there are varying levels of expertise and
awareness in this arena. I guess my main point originally was that
there is a substantial body of knowledge out there amongst coral
collectors and aquarists that might be of value to science - and that
as far as I can see it has not really been tapped into. I'm a strong
supporter of collaborative efforts and lateral thinking because there
is generally value to be gained by all participants in the process - I
think there would be interest on both sides for this particular
dialogue to proceed. I would be interested to see if other "listers"
have any suggestions as to how this could be achieved.
Best wishes
Margie
Thomas Goreau wrote:
Dear Margie,
I'm a field man who has never kept a tank, but it seems to me that
awareness of the need for lighting, circulation, and filtering systems
is in advance of understanding the importance of feeding among all but
the most skilled hobbyists. As you saw Sprung did not seem aware of
it. Several hobbyists have told me that they are aware of the need to
feed for best results, but many are not.
Best wishes,
Tom
On May 31, 2006, at 11:01 PM, Margie Atkinson wrote:
Dear Tom
I'm no expert aquarist either, however these days the people (in
Australia at least) who keep corals tend to be those who have made
the effort to learn what is needed - generally starting with the
easiest species and with experience moving on to the more
challenging ones. The expense alone to set up a coral-focussed
marine aquarium is enough to deter most from venturing into this
arena unless they are serious about doing it properly!
Its not just about knowing whether a species needs feeding - that
is the easy bit - the technology available to keep aquarium
lighting at appropriate levels, along with specilised filtration,
temperature control, control of water movement (and habitat
requirements generally), as well as knowledge about interspecific
interactions has all changed dramatically in the last decade and
these have been big contributors in the ability to keep the
"difficult" species alive. Post harvest handling is also important
and standards in this area have improved as well.
Best wishes
Margie
Thomas Goreau wrote:
Dear Margie,
I am no aquariast, but I think that one reason many corals are
regarded hard to keep alive in tanks is that so many people falsely
think they don't need to be fed. The really successful coral growers
all appear to recognize that feeding is crucial.
Best wishes,
Tom
Thomas J. Goreau, PhD
President
Global Coral Reef Alliance
37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge MA 02139
617-864-4226
[1]goreau at bestweb.net
[2]http://www.globalcoral.org
On May 31, 2006, at 10:12 PM, Margie Atkinson wrote:
Dear Listers
I agree with the concept of starting a dialogue between coral
researchers and coral collectors and aquarists - it is long
overdue!
I work in a management capacity with the commercial coral fishery
on the GBR and have seen that there is a wealth of knowledge
available from these collectors and the aquarium industry in
general. Unfortunately there seems to have been little in the way
of shared forums between the two sectors. Coral
aquarists/enthusiasts often share their knowledge through list
serves, online discussion groups and club meetings and newsletters
- rarely through the published (scientific) literature. Most
scientific papers dealing with physiology and ecology are not user
friendly for the lay person so are unlikely to have been discovered
by aquarists.
I realise also that in many parts of the world commercial coral
collection has a bad reputation for causing significant
environmental impact, which may have contributed to the apparent
lack of engagement between the two sectors.
The knowledge base for keeping corals in aquariums is expanding
exponentially and many species that, a few years ago, were deemed
difficult to keep are now relatively easy - I'm sure some of the
industry observations that have led to these developments could
help ecologists and physiologists refine their hypotheses and
experimental designs to better understand the mechanisms involved.
Also, people who keep coral in domestic aquaria tend to be
extremely passionate and observant about the occupants and recount
extraordinary tales about what the corals do under various
scenarios - maybe consideration of these "outliers" may assist our
understanding of the fundamental processes that still elude us!
Another area where there is considerable scope for intersection
between researchers and the aquarium industry is that of field
observations. On the GBR, coral is collected via a small
well-managed fishery that uses best practice approaches. Many
collectors on the GBR have been in the industry a long time and
have a strong sense of stewardship. They dive regularly (often
daily) in places that scientists generally don't go - not just on
the reef but in inter-reefal areas, so they have a good feel for
broad coral community patterns over quite long timeframes as well
as for the behaviour and distribution of a substantial number of
coral species.
Some of the collectors already feed into the GBRMPA's Bleachwatch
program providing regular reports about the health of the reefs
they collect from and the particular species that are bleaching and
to what depth etc. It has been my experience also that many of the
favoured aquarium corals that are assumed to be "rare" on coral
reefs, especially in shallow water, are sometimes very abundant
inter-reefally on sediment flats - again, places that scientists
may not dive very often. This observation is supported by recent
remote controlled video work coming out of the AIMS Seabed
biodiversity project.
I see that Shashank has mentioned Julian's book - another good
reference for aquarium corals is:
Borneman, E.H., 2001: Aquarium Corals: Selection, Husbandry and
Natural History. TFH Publications, New Jersey and Microcosm Books,
Vermont pp 464.
Regards
Margie
shashank Keshavmurthy wrote:
Dear Listers
It is interesting to see that finally the debate
on the coral energy aquisition has surfaced...
most of the resarch papers till now say that
there is major contribution of Carbon form
zooxanthellae to corals....but, when in need the
corals can adapt to the carbon aquisition
heterotrophically....???????
We all need to get lots of information from
aquarists around the world....
If you will see the book written by "Julian
Spring" on the aquarium corals...it gives the
mode of nutrition as autotrophy and heterotrophy
to most of the corals described in his book....
we as researchers may just dont know what really
is happening out there....
here i agree totally with Tom....we still need to
get lots work done so as to understand the true
feeding habits of corals...
Recent paper by "Palardy et al, MEPS (2005) 300:
79-89, Effects of upwelling, depth, morphology
and polyp size on feeding in three species of
Panamanian corals"...looks at what corals are
eating...
Collaboration with aquarists is needed to really
understand about the energy aquisition in corals
in more detail...
more and more people are looking at zooxanthellae
since it is believed to be "the source of Carbon"
and "the factor for/of coral bleaching
response"...
question is how much is the symbiotic dependency?
there are many studies showing that the corals
can survive without the presence of
zooxanthellae...it may not be for long time and
may not be see in natural enviroment....but we do
see many sea anemones in coral reefs, bleached
and still surviving....
i think it is like, do corals want to feed on
zooplankton when they loose zooxanthellae?
does it take some time to switch between the
modes of nutrition acquisition?
combination of stress factors may be disturbing
the switching between the modes
for instance, when kept in aquarium tank in
dark..it is only one stress and corals can
survive with the zooplankton being fed...that
means they are able to switch between the
modes..?
hmm...its pretty complex out there..and coral
physiology is more and more challenging...this is
my view...
Regards
shashank
"the role of infinitely small in nature is infinitely large"-Louis Pasteur
Keshavmurthy Shashank
phD candidate
Kochi University, Graduate School of Kuroshio Science
Laboratory of Environmental Conservation
Otsu 200, Monobe, Nankoku-shi
783-8502, Kochi, Japan
alt. id: [3]shashank at cc.kochi-u.ac.jp
phone: 81 080 3925 3889
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Margie Atkinson
Project Manager
Fisheries Issues Group
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
PO Box 1379, Townsville, QLD 4810, Australia
Tel: (61) 07 4750 0735 Fax: (61) 07 4772 6093
Mob: 0438 387 303
--
Margie Atkinson
Project Manager
Fisheries Issues Group
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
PO Box 1379, Townsville, QLD 4810, Australia
Tel: (61) 07 4750 0735 Fax: (61) 07 4772 6093
Mob: 0438 387 303
Thomas J. Goreau, PhD
President
Global Coral Reef Alliance
37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge MA 02139
617-864-4226
[7]goreau at bestweb.net
[8]http://www.globalcoral.org
--
Margie Atkinson
Project Manager
Fisheries Issues Group
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
PO Box 1379, Townsville, QLD 4810, Australia
Tel: (61) 07 4750 0735 Fax: (61) 07 4772 6093
Mob: 0438 387 303
References
1. mailto:goreau at bestweb.net
2. http://www.globalcoral.org/
3. mailto:shashank at cc.kochi-u.ac.jp
4. http://mail.yahoo.com/
5. mailto:Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
6. http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
7. mailto:goreau at bestweb.net
8. http://www.globalcoral.org/
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