[Coral-List] corals can eat their zooxanthellae

Alina Szmant alina at cisme-instruments.com
Sat Aug 26 01:31:21 UTC 2023 

It is a shame that so many people who have an interest in coral reefs haven't either had the opportunity to take a higher level coral reef ecology and physiology course, or in lieu of this, taken the time to actually read the scientific literature. I was of the impression that when Coral-List was started by Jim Hendee it was oriented to coral reef scientists communicating with each other about substantive coral reef topics. It was open to all which is a good way for those with little background to learn from scientists with more experience. Over the years, I find that this scenario has changed and it is now more a forum for afficionados, but not necessarily ones with any background in the science of corals and coral reefs. I have shelves of books about all kinds of geological, ecological and biological aspects of corals that I use to brush up on topics, and there have been excellent overview books over the decades for those who take the time to read them. e.g. Ecosystems of the World Vol 25 Coral Reefs (1990). Then there is https://scholar.google.com for more specific literature searches. 

I am sorry, but I will not apologize for being shocked that in 2023 people on this list would be so uninformed about coral biology to not know what is basically general knowledge that corals digest some of their zooxanthellae. As Rob pointed out, the first paper on this was by Boschma back in 1925. He also did cool experiments showing how he could infect aposymbiotic corals with zooxanthellae by feeding them bits of zooxanthellate coral tissue mixed up with crab meat. He did a lot of his research with the cold water coral Astrangia danae (now poculata). I used to spend hours and hours reading the literature to catch up with what had been learned over the decades, even centuries, before I came along. Apparently that doesn't happen anymore: everyone is too busy reinventing the wheel. I was at the Bremen ISRS and did come away with the impression that oh so many young and intelligent researchers are underprepared for tackling major research topics because of lack of knowledge with which to reason with.


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-----Original Message-----
From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> On Behalf Of Vassil Zlatarski via Coral-List
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2023 7:04 PM
To: Coral-List Subscribers <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>; Austin Bowden-Kerby <abowdenkerby at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] corals can eat their zooxanthellae

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-co
> ral-bleaching/
> <
> https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-co
> ral-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-cu
> ltivate-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.h
> > tml
> >
> > 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-0912033
> 40.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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