{"id":5789,"date":"2017-08-29T12:45:05","date_gmt":"2017-08-29T07:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/?p=5789"},"modified":"2017-08-29T12:45:05","modified_gmt":"2017-08-29T07:45:05","slug":"deep-water-corals-glow-for-their-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/?p=5789","title":{"rendered":"Deep-Water Corals Glow for Their Lives"},"content":{"rendered":"

New research sheds light on the secrets of fluorescent coral reefs<\/em><\/p>\n

Coral reefs are economic mainstays and critical habitats. But something else makes them amazing: their otherworldly glow. Both shallow and deep-water corals emit fluorescent light, but until now, scientists only understood why shallow-water corals light up. Now,\u00a0reports Laura Castells for\u00a0Nature, the other half of the puzzle has been revealed and it turns out that the different kinds of corals glow for very different reasons.<\/p>\n

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These glowing corals live deep in the Red Sea<\/p><\/div>\n

Shallow corals emit green light as a kind of sunblock to protect\u00a0them from the harsh radiation of the sun. But\u00a0in a new study\u00a0in the journal\u00a0Proceedings of the Royal Society B, scientists reveal that their deep-water counterparts glow in an attempt to absorb the scant light at the bottom of the ocean.<\/p>\n

In an inverse of what happens in shallower waters, the deep-water corals must absorb as much light as possible to allow their zooxanthellae the tiny symbiotic algae that give corals their brilliant color and energy to make food through photosynthesis.<\/p>\n

Once light gets down to the corals, they have to modify it to promote photosynthesis. This modification is necessary because the blue light that makes it to the ocean floor\u00a0isn\u2019t ideal\u00a0for creating energy within the corals. Researchers discovered that the corals use a red fluorescent protein to turn the blue-hued light that reaches them at the bottom of the ocean into orange-red light. That newly colored glow allows the light to penetrate deeper into the tissues that contain\u00a0zooxanthellae. The light then feeds the algae and spreads more efficiently throughout the coral.<\/p>\n

Deep-water corals\u2019 amazing capacity to modify what little light they do receive is impressive. But the new discovery undermines a long-held hope about a potential recovery option for the deep corals\u2019 fragile, shallow-water cousins.<\/p>\n

During\u00a0coral bleaching events, high water temperatures cause shallow-water corals to expel their zooxanthellae. As a result, they lose their color and become more vulnerable to disease and death. In the past, scientists have suggested that shallow-water corals\u00a0might be able to migrate\u00a0or find refuge in deeper, cooler waters.<\/p>\n

But the new discovery suggests it won\u2019t be that simple. \u201cCorals need special features to adjust to life in these low-light depths for the benefit of their vital photosynthetic partners,\u201d says J\u00f6rg Wiedenmann, who co-authored the paper, in\u00a0a press release, \u201cand not all shallow water corals might be able to use this escape route.\u201d Given the fragility of shallow-water reefs, it makes more sense to work to preserve them where they are now than hope for a great migration.<\/p>\n

Source: http:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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