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However, the majority of coral without zooxanthellae starve. [15] Normally, coral polyps live in an endosymbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae. [18] This relationship is crucial for the health of the coral and the reef, [18] which provide shelter for approximately 25% of all marine life. [19] In this relationship, the coral provides the ...
The relationship between jellyfish and zooxanthellae is affected a little differently than coral in terms of climate change despite both of them being a part of the cnidaria family. [23] One study suggested that certain species of jellyfish and their symbiotic zooxanthellae may have some type of resistance to decreasing pH caused by climate ...
The polyps contain symbiotic photosynthetic microalgae called zooxanthellae which, under good conditions, can obtain almost sufficient energy from sunlight for the coral's needs. It is also heterotrophic; the polyps extend their tentacles and catch and ingest organic particles, sediment, zooplankton, bacteria and even dissolved organic matter. [7]
The coral then uses these to make proteins, fats, and carbohydrates which help produce their calcium carbonate skeleton. The relationship between the zooxanthellae and the coral polyp creates a tight recycling of nutrients in nutrient-poor tropical waters and is the driving force behind the growth and productivity of the reef. [4]
The individual polyps are large and sit in stony cups known as corallites. The polyps are translucent and the colony has a furry appearance when they are expanded. In warm water and with high levels of light, this coral often houses photosynthesizing symbiotic protists known as zooxanthellae in its tissues, and then the coral appears brown. In ...
Coral polyps, animals, and zooxanthellae, being single-celled organisms, have a mutualistic relationship, where each organism benefit from each other. Through this relationship, Pavona duerdeni get their photosynthetically fixed carbon needed to achieve their needed respiratory requirements. [3]
Zooxanthellae, or coral symbionts, serve in a mutualistic relationship as a source of energy for coral colonies, while also receiving shelter between coral polyps. [5] Zooxanthellae photosynthesize and transfer sugars to the coral polyp, but azooxanthellate, or aposymbiotic, coral colonies rely on obtaining energy through heterotrophy .
The classification of corals has been discussed for millennia, owing to having similarities to both plants and animals. Aristotle's pupil Theophrastus described the red coral, korallion, in his book on stones, implying it was a mineral, but he described it as a deep-sea plant in his Enquiries on Plants, where he also mentions large stony plants that reveal bright flowers when under water in ...