[Coral-List] Unusual bleaching in Aiptasia

[Samantha Hamlin]

Greetings,
I am hoping that someone can shed some light (or direct me to some
relevant literature) on some
results from a bleaching experiment using Aiptasia. I tried to elicit
a bleaching response by
subjecting different Aiptasia to different temperatures. All
individuals were acclimated at
23 degrees, then went into an incubator that was either 23, 26, 28, or
30 degrees for 12 hours
(they were kept in the dark during this 12-hour period; otherwise,
they were on a 12h light:12h
dark period).
The anemones that were subjected to 30 degrees actually got darker,
and I saw the most bleaching
in the anemones that were at 23 degrees.
Does anyone have any thoughts as to why this might be? Any suggestions
or ideas would be
much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
Samantha Hamlin

Western Washington University
Bellingham, WA
Lab: 360.650.7480