Title: Preliminary study of coral bleaching at cellular level under thermal stress
Abstract: Global warming and abnormal high temperature cause coral-zooxanthellae symbiosis collapse and significant loss of zooxanthellae(coral bleaching),and further lead to degradation of coral reef ecosystems.In this study,the authors collected six species of corals from the Luhuitou fringing reef in Sanya,and designed a mesocosm experiment that those corals were cultured under a high temperature stress,for investigating the diversity of tolerance among different coral symbiosis at cellular level.The results are as follows.The diversity of tolerance among different coral species under acute thermal stresses was related to their morphologies: branching corals showed the lowest tolerance in thermal stress,while the foliose and massive corals showed stronger tolerance,which was similar to the result in the field monitoring.Different coral species showed different ways of zooxanthellae loss under thermal stresses: zooxanthellae discharging continuously,like Pocillopora damicornis;zooxanthellae discharging partly and followed by coral tissues containing zooxanthellae separating from skeletons,like Acropora hyacinthus and Acropora brueggemanni;the residual zooxanthellae in coral tissues using mitotic proliferation to replenish their numbers quickly,like Pavona decussate;cell necrosis of zooxanthellae in coral tissues,like Porites lutea.This study confirmed that the role of coral host and zooxanthellae should be considered simultaneously in further studies of coral responses to global warming.
Publication Year: 2011
Publication Date: 2011-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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