Coral - November/December 2010

Azooxanthellate? Researchers in Hawai’i find Symbiodinium in many black corals In marine biology, it is akin to finding life on Mars. When examining black corals found living as deep as 396 meters ( 1,300 feet), researchers have made the astonishing discovered that most contain zooxanthellae, until now believed to be specialized to live within the tissues of reef animals in sun-drenched shallower waters.

Research team members from the Toonen Lab, headed up by Dr. Rob Toonen, at the Hawai’i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) on Coconut Island in Oahu’s Kaneohe Bay announced the findings recently with a full paper published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Marine aquarists are well aware of the vital role zooxanthellae play in providing energy to shallow-water reefbuilding corals via photosynthesis. These single-celled symbiotic algae are key to the dominance of such stony corals genera as Acropora and Montipora, but they are also found in the tissues of soft corals, some gorgonians, sea anemones, clams, jellyfish, some nudibranchs, and even foraminiferans.

In deeper less-studied waters, closely related black corals were considered to be void of these algae because of the light shortage to support photosynthesis. In fact, all black corals were considered to lack Symbiodinium spp. zooxanthellae, because they are typically found at great depths where light levels are very low.

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