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#1
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Quick Zooxanthellae Question
This may be a dumb question...but on hard corals do just the polyps have zoox or does the tissue on the branches also have it?
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#2
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It's a symbiotic relationship that is within the entire coral.
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#3
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some corals have Zooxanthellae in their polyps or polyps and tissue. Others just in tissue and have somewhat transparent polyps.
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Some people say, "How can you live without knowing?" I do not know what they mean. I always live without knowing. That is easy. How you get to know is what I want to know. - Richard Feynman |
#4
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Greetings All !
Quote:
Technically, zooxanthellae location isn't about external morphology (like polyps), it's more about tissue layers (expressed in a variety of morphologies). If you were thinking more about zooxanthellae density (as opposed to location), this can vary significantly ... and is very much associated with morphology. Quote:
Here's a diagram that presents it better than I could fumble around describing it: http://www.columbia.edu/itc/eeeb/bak...natomy-fig.jpg Notice how the zooxanthellae-bearing tissue is, depending on where you focus, proximal to the water column, while this same tissue layer is also proximate to the gastrovascular cavity. I'm babbling about this because some folks try to gauge zooxanthellae location by external morphology alone ... this is an error. More graphics ... General Coral Anatomy http://www.columbia.edu/itc/eeeb/bak...natomy-fig.jpg Zooxanthellae Density Pic http://www.sbg.ac.at/ipk/avstudio/pi...an/zooxant.jpg Electron Micrograph of Zooxanthellae http://www.coral.noaa.gov/themes/pics/zoox1.gif JMO ... HTH
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Mesocosm |
#5
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Thanks mesocosm, the links that you post are always very valuable and hurt my brain for many days.
The links you gave me on amino's and aggregates kept me busy for a week. I'm actually still researching it. Now I'm trying to figure out how.... carbs/amino's/ammonium/lightness/darkness effect the relationship between Zoox and their host. Wondering if a change in a polyp will coincide with a branch? There is probably no way to darken a polyp and lighten a branch or vise versa. |
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