[Coral-List] corals can eat their zooxanthellae

Vassil Zlatarski vzlatarski at gmail.com
Fri Aug 25 23:04:06 UTC 2023


You are again right, Austin, and let's start discussing the best way to
overcome this situation.

Isn't  a contemporary TREATISE ON CORALS a long time awaited?

The "most recent" coral treatises were written by great geologists T. W.
Vaughan,  J. W. Wells (in English), and  J. Alloteau (in French).  They
were published in the middle of last century and offered predominantly
paleontological knowledge of that time.  The treatise by J.-P. Chevalier
appeared posthumously in 1987, in Traité de Zoologie, offering also
considerable information on living corals.  Unjustly, being published in
French it received very limited use.

The project for two volumes dedicated to Scleractinia in the series T*reatise
on Invertebrate Paleontology* started in the beginning of this century ...

It would be great to succeed in realizing an efficient neontological
project for the Scleractinia treatise.  Coral-List is a great place to
discuss it, and what opportunity with the existing Series* Coral Reefs of
the World?  *

Cheers,

Vassil


On Fri, Aug 25, 2023 at 4:27 PM Austin Bowden-Kerby via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> Cool Doug- and something I too was unaware of, even if it was previously
> known.  : )
>
> Many key findings and information in technical areas such as biochemistry,
> genetics etc, does not get translated into the general/public knowledge of
> coral reefs, or into a form whereby it can be easily assimilated by
> university students and workers in the field, who until recently had poor
> access to publications, especially to those that are not mainstream to our
> field.  Is there a simple summary I can read somewhere?  I am constantly
> playing catch up.
>
> I never understood the specific energy and nutrient transfer mechanisms of
> the symbiosis, as it was not taught when I was a graduate student, and
> somehow I missed it subsequently.  I always wondered if the algae
> generously and altruistically leaked out sugars and proteins for the host
> to use, as that is what the public information seems to imply, or if the
> host had to digest the algae to get them?  Do any of these papers tell us
> how and where they digest the algae, does the algae have to be expelled
> into the gastrovascular cavity or can it happen intracellularly?  If
> intracellular digestion occurs, then how to get rid of the wastes?
>
> And another question, how do the algae leak out and get shared with
> incoming juvenile corals? As the algae are flagellated and can swim, how do
> they get out to swim away?
>
> And lastly, to Alina, opioids are no excuse for publicly shaming someone
> and being rude.  It is no wonder that so many of our younger scientists
> and those more sensitive are so terrified of posting on the Coral List.  I
> was for years, but I got over it, as science is failing us at this critical
> point in history - our house is on fire!   We know so much about a system
> that may soon be gone.
>
> Regards,
>
> Austin
>
> Austin Bowden-Kerby, PhD
> Corals for Conservation
> P.O. Box 4649 Samabula, Fiji Islands
>
> https://www.corals4conservation.org
> Publication on C4C's coral-focused climate change adaptation strategies:
> https://www.mdpi.com/2673-1924/4/1/2/pdf
> Film on our "Reefs of Hope" coral restoration for climate change adaptation
> strategies:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG0lqKciXAA
>
> https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/
> <
> https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/
> >
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 26, 2023 at 1:58 AM Alina Szmant via Coral-List <
> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>
> > I know that I am on opiods due to my recent surgery, but this message
> > makes me feel that I must be living in an alternative universe that is
> > informationally separated from previous century. We knew that corals can
> > digest and assimilate their zooxanthellae since Muscatine, Trench,  Yonge
> > and other researchers work many decades ago. So your message makes we
> > wonder if people simply just don't bother to read the literature,  or
> > younger researchers are caught up in the "Breaking News" mindset.  I
> > haven't looked at the papers yet, but my guess is that the new work is
> just
> > adding details to a fact and process that has been long known.  So maybe
> > just modify the messaging, such as "new information about the harvesting
> of
> > zooxanthellae by their anthozoan hosts" would be more appropriate.  Nice
> to
> > kearn new details about how nature works, but the sensationalism should
> > left for cable news coverage of plane crashes and celebrity arrests.
> >
> > Alina Szmant
> >
> >
> >
> > Dr. Alina M. Szmant,  CEO
> > CISME Instruments LLC
> >
> >
> >
> > -------- Original message --------
> > From: Douglas Fenner via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> > Date: 8/24/23 11:06 PM (GMT-05:00)
> > To: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> > Subject: [Coral-List] corals can eat their zooxanthellae
> >
> > Like hard-working farmers, corals cultivate and eat their resident algae
> >
> >
> >
> https://www.science.org/content/article/hard-working-farmers-corals-cultivate-and-eat-their-resident-algae
> >
> > Corals have algal friends for dinner
> >
> > https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02593-7
> >
> > Note author contact
> >
> > Reef-building corals farm and feed on their photosynthetic symbionts
> >
> >  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06442-5
> >
> > open-access
> >
> > It sounded like from the popular accounts that the corals only did that
> > when the water they were in had zero nutrients in it, they didn't do it
> in
> > low-nutrient water that is typical of tropical reefs in oligotrophic
> > waters.  That's what it sounded like at least.
> >
> > Cheers, Doug
> >
> > --
> > Douglas Fenner
> > Lynker Technologies, LLC, Contractor
> > NOAA Fisheries Service
> > Pacific Islands Regional Office
> > Honolulu
> > and:
> > Coral Reef Consulting
> > PO Box 997390
> > Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799-6298  USA
> >
> > One recent study estimates over 61,000 people died from heat during
> > Europe's record-breaking summer last year.
> >
> > https://www.yahoo.com/news/record-breaking-heat-bakes-us-014459083.html
> >
> > 1 million Florida buildings will be overrun by sea-level rise, new study
> > shows, at a cost of $261-624 BILLION
> >
> >
> >
> https://www.yahoo.com/news/1-million-florida-buildings-overrun-091203340.html
> >
> > Scientists size up human predatory footprint
> > Humans are the ultimate predators, trapping, hunting, or otherwise
> > exploiting 15,000 species of vertebrates—300 times more species than
> > jaguars and 113 times more than great white sharks.
> >
> >
> https://www.science.org/content/article/news-glance-muscular-dystrophy-therapy-lab-grown-chicken-and-humans-toll-wildlife
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