A new study led by the University of Southampton in the UK has uncovered why coral reefs flourish in waters that appear to be deficient in nutrients, a phenomenon that has fascinated scientists since Charles Darwin. The research shows that corals farm and feed on their photosynthetic symbionts –
A research study from the University of Southampton has unveiled that corals feed on microscopic algae living within their cells, accessing a nutrient source previously thought unavailable. This discovery answers a long-standing mystery known as Darwin’s Paradox of Coral Reefs, explaining how corals flourish in nutrient-poor waters.
Reef corals provide home and feeding grounds for many organisms. Credit: Wiedenmann / D’Angelo / University of Southampton The coral animals are dependent on a ‘symbiosis’, a mutually beneficial relationship with microscopic algae that live inside their cells. The photosynthetic algae produce large amounts of carbon-rich compounds, such as sugars, which they transfer to the host coral for energy generation.
Seabirds introduce nutrients in coral reefs in the Indian Ocean. Credit: Nick Graham, Lancaster University Professor Paul Wilson, paleoceanographer at the University of Southampton expands: “With this technique, we could unambiguously demonstrate that the nitrogen atoms that sustained the growth of the coral tissue were derived from the dissolved inorganic nutrients that were fed to their symbionts in the experiment.”species
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