JGR Our Online Journal - Uptodate Environmental News from the Cayman Islands and around the Globe.

Delicate Partnership Between Coral And Algae Threatened By Global Warming - 25 March 2008

Home
Global Warming - First time in History - North Pole Could be Free of Ice this Summer - 26 June 2008
Blue Iguana Breeding Programme Success 11 June 2008
Very Rare and Large Squid (24 lbs 4 oz, 7 ft long) - found off Little Cayman - 20 May 2008
World Outrage on the Cruel and Unjustified Death of Six Grand Cayman Blue Iguanas - 6 May 2008
Coral Reefs And Climate Change: Microbes Could Be The Key To Coral Death - 1 April 2008
Delicate Partnership Between Coral And Algae Threatened By Global Warming - 25 March 2008
Green Iguanas taking over in Grand Cayman - 29 October 2007
Less than 0.001% of Britain's marine environment, home to 44,000 species, is legally protected
John Gray Recyclers Distribute Educational Posters on the Grand Cayman Blue Iguanas - September 2007
JGR Remind Public to Plastic Six Pack Holder Recycle to Preserve the Cayman Islands' environment
The Secret Language of Whales - How it will help with their preservation - 7 March 2007
Iguanas get Royal attention - JGR News - February 2007
Prince Edward visits the Salina Reserve to see the Grand Cayman Blue Iguanas - 4 Feb 2007
Cayman Islands' Dept of Environment's Mangrove Project - 6 February 2007
Global Endangered Species threatened to become extinct without Action - MSN News - January 2007
El Nino and Global Warming - 2007 predicted to be warmest on record - 4 January 2007
Crocodile found in Cayman waters, Old Man Bay, North Side, Grand Cayman - 30 December 2006
Ice Cracks at North Pole - Global Warming - 21 September 2006
Shark that walks on fins is discovered in Indonesia - September 2006
Baby Manatee found in Cayman waters - 4 August 2006
Year 11 John Gray Recyclers Attend Awards Function on Disney Cruise Line - 23 June 2006
Dogs Kill Endangered Blue Iguanas, Botanical Gardens, Grand Cayman - 7 June 2006
Year 11 John Gray Recyclers Win Jiminy Cricket Challenge 2006 - 6 June 2006
John Gray Recyclers have Recycling Global Reach - "Carribean Current" - 1 June 2006
The origins of Cayman's sand - Marnie Laing, Cayman Islands' National Trust - 1 May 2006
Caribbean Coral Threatened by Warming Seas - 24 April 2006
John Gray Recyclers Agape Park Project in the News - 16 February 2006
CaymanNewNews Article on Grand Cayman's Landifll problems following Hurricane Ivan - 18 January 2006
Decline in World Population of Molluscs - 10 January 2006
JGR in the News - Students, businesses get together to help environment - 7 December 2005
UNEP - Global Warming forces Pacific Islanders to move - 6 December 2005
John Gray Recyclers Target Six-pack Holders - 2 December 2005
Cayman Islands Dept of Environmental Health join John Gray Recyclers at Reading Fair - 30 November
Wednesday 30 November marks end of record 2005 hurricane season
Coral Reefs Facing Crisis - 30 November 2005
JGR In the News - Plastic Six-Pack holder Recycling in Grand Cayman - 18 November 2005
JGR Blog - Grand Cayman Cruise berthing a top issue - 10 November 2005
JGR Blog - Land fill on Grand Cayman running short - 9 November 2005
JGR Blog - Cayman's Blue Dragons get worldwide coverage - 8 November 2005
JGR Blog - Wilma causes Cruise Numbers Concern on Grand Cayman - 20,158 due on one day - 7 Nov 05
JGR Blog - Mexico's Coral Reefs may take up to 100 years to heal after Wilma - 5 November 2005
JGR Blog - Turtle release in Grand Cayman choppy but cheerful - 3 November 2005
JGR Blog - Migrant Masked Booby blown to Grand Cayman by Wilma is successfully released - 3 Nov 2005
JGR Blog - Bleaching threatens Coral Reefs - 3 November 2005
JGR Blog - Cayman Islands' Turtles survive wild Wilma - 1 November 2005
JGR Blog - Erosion a major problem from Hurricane Wilma - Cayman Islands - 1 November 2005
JGR Blog - Iggy Supports Recycling at School Fair - 27 October 2005
JGR Blog - Blue Iguana Rescued - 26 October 2005
JGR Blog - IUCN Article on Climate Change Destruction of World's Coral Reefs - 25 October 2005
JGR Blog - Cayman Islands' Conch/Whelk Season starts 1 November and closes on 30 April 2006
JGR Blog - Turtle Tracking of Cayman Islands' Turtles - 24 October 2005
JGR Blog - School Club Fair - September 2005
JGR Blog - Important Cayman Islands' Recycling Information from C I Dept of Environmental Health
JGR Blog - 14 November 2003 - We've got the Baby Blues
JGR Blog - 25 October 2003 - Our Rap and our Float in the Pirates' Week Float Parade
JGR Blog - 19 - 23 October 2003 - the Blue Iguana Programme of the Cayman Islands' National Trust
JGR Blog 29 Sept - 3 Oct 2003 - We continue to track our Grand Cayman turtles in Central America
JGR Blog 22 - 26 Sept 2003 - Tracking our Grand Cayman Sea Turtles
JGR Blog - 18 Sept 2003 - John Gray High School Club Fair
JGR Blog - 15 - 19 Sept 2003 - Opening of Stephen Jared Youth Centre
Contact Us

Link to "Science Daily" article on "Delicate Partnership Between Coral And Algae Threatened By Global Warming"

The symbiosis between coral and zooxanthellae is not only powerful enough to build the largest living organism on the planet, the Great Barrier Reef, but also underpins the economies and living standards of many tropical nations and societies who harvest their food from the reefs or have developing tourism industries. (Credit: iStockphoto)
ScienceDaily (Mar. 25, 2008) — Over two hundred million humans depend for their subsistence on the fact that coral has an addiction to ‘junk food’ - and orders its partners, the symbiotic algae, to make it.

This curious arrangement is one of Nature’s most delicate and complex partnerships – a collaboration now facing grave threats from climate change.

The symbiosis between coral – a primitive animal – and zooxanthellae, tiny one-celled plants, is not only powerful enough to build the largest living organism on the planet, the Great Barrier Reef, but also underpins the economies and living standards of many tropical nations and societies who harvest their food from the reefs or have developing tourism industries.

The issue of whether the partnership is robust enough to withstand the challenges of climate change is driving a worldwide scientific effort to decipher how corals and their symbiotic algae communicate with one another, says Professor David Yellowlees of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) and James Cook University.

“It’s an incredibly intricate relationship in which the corals feed the algae and try to control their diet, and the algae in turn use sunlight to produce “junk food” – carbohydrates and fats – for the corals to consume.

“Where it all breaks down is when heated water lingers over the reef and the corals expel the algae and then begin to slowly starve to death.  This is the bleaching phenomenon Australians are by now so familiar with, and which is such a feature of global warming.”

The challenge for scientists is to understand the ‘chemical conversation’ that goes on between the corals and zooxanthellae, the genes which control it – and to explore whether corals which lose their primary partners can survive using other algae or must inevitably die.

Prof Yellowlees and Dr Bill Leggat will shortly release a new review of the current state of knowledge about the metabolism of the coral symbiosis in the journal Plant Cell and Environment.

“Coral symbiosis takes place mainly in clear, clean nutrient-poor waters where food is so scarce the corals need a partner to help feed them.

“We know for example the corals provide carbon as CO2 which is processed by the algae to reprocess into carbohydrates and fats using energy from sunlight, so they can feed. It’s a beautiful recycling process.

“The corals control the diet of the algae, to ensure it produces what they need. You could say they farm the algae, much as we farm crops.

“And the algae serve as the junk food chefs, providing the corals favourite food to order.”

“Researchers in the Centre of Excellence are trying to understand the chemical and genetic basis for the conversation that goes on between a coral and its particular algae, and to establish whether, if it loses its algae in a bleaching event, it can establish the same relationship with a different strain of algae.

“In other words, how robust this symbiotic system is and whether it can withstand shocks from warming, ocean acidification, changes in sunlight levels and other likely impacts from human activity.

“The bottom line here is the survival of the Great Barrier Reef and coral reefs the world over.”

Five times in the Earth’s history corals have been wiped out, or very close to it, suggesting they are highly vulnerable to changes in ocean conditions, Prof. Yellowlees says. Some of these past events were probably triggered by past global warming and ocean acidification.

Some scientists have speculated whether corals in crisis can be given a helping hand by humans in the form of new symbiotic algae reared for the purpose – but these are very hard to grow outside of their coral hosts, and Prof Yellowlees is doubtful this is a practical solution to major bleaching events affecting thousands of square kilometres of reef.

More likely, he feels, is that cryptic strains of algae which currently play little role in the symbiosis but are present in corals may be able to take over the role of junk food chef and keep the corals going on their preferred diet. To what extent this can happen is not yet known.

Adapted from materials provided by ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies.

APA

MLA
ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies (2008, March 25). Delicate Partnership Between Coral And Algae Threatened By Global Warming. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 2, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2008/03/080324091101.htm

Related Stories

 

Coral Reefs And Climate Change: Microbes Could Be The Key To Coral Death - 1 April 2008