Hope For Some Coral Species In Penn State Study - Andaman Sea Species Can Stand High Temps

[hatrack]

Penn State researchers and their international collaborators have discovered a diversity of corals harboring unusual species of symbiotic algae in the warm waters of the Andaman Sea in the northeastern Indian Ocean. "The existence of so many novel coral symbioses thriving in a place that is too warm for most corals gives us hope that coral reefs and the ecosystems they support may persist - at least in some places - in the face of global warming," said the team's leader, Penn State Assistant Professor of Biology
Todd LaJeunesse.

According to LaJeunesse, the comprehensiveness of the team's survey, which also included analysis of the corals and symbiotic algae living in the cooler western Indian Ocean and Great Barrier Reef area of Australia, is unparalleled by any other study. The team's findings will be published during the week ending 20 February 2010 in an early online issue of the Journal of Biogeography.

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n the Andaman Sea, the scientists found a variety of seemingly thermally tolerant algae species, with one species being particularly abundant. Called Symbiodinium trenchi, the species is a generalist organism - one that is able to associate with a variety of hosts. Corals harboring this symbiont appear to be tolerant of high heat. LaJeunesse found the same species in the Caribbean Ocean during a bleaching event that took place in 2005. "Symbiodinium trenchi, which normally occurs in very low numbers in the Caribbean, was able to take advantage of the warming event and become more prolific because of its apparent tolerance of high temperatures," he said. "The species appears to have saved certain colonies of coral from the damaging effects of unusually warm water."

LaJeunesse said that some scientists have suggested that reefs suffering from high water temperatures might be "seeded" with the thermally tolerant Symbiodinium trenchi; however, he is not sure the approach will work. "Symbiodinium trenchi forms symbiotic associations only with corals and other animals that acquire their symbionts from the environment," he said. "Other species of coral are born with algae already in their cells. If Symbiodinium trenchi were introduced into a new environment, it may be able to 'rescue' some species that acquire their symbionts from the environment, but it would not be able to 'rescue' species that are born with algae already in their cells because these species have evolved special relationships with their algae."

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http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Life_Can_Be_Resilience_In_Face_Of_Future_Global_Warming_999.html

[aquart]

1. Dubai is doing stuff to rescue coral reefs, too.

Read it on Twitter.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. See also

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=230729&mesg_id=230729