absoption specturm

[bkiba]

does anyone have information regarding the light absorption spectrum of the photosythetic organisms living in corals? I know zooanthelle (sp?) are a primary symbiotic algae. Are there others, has anyone ever harvested the algae and measured spectral absorption on these? If not does anyone know if the standard red and blue absorption peaks also apply to corals? I'm assuming that since zooanthelle is mostly brown from what I've seen, that there are also some yellows and greens used during aquatic photosynthesis.

thanks

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Here is a thread with a little bit of information similar to what you are asking for - http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=772446
Here is a link inside the thread that might be exactly what you are looking for - http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/1/aafeature1

Here is a related thread. - http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=775732

 

[MCsaxmaster]

Search on google maybe for "coral" and "action spectrum" or something along those lines. I bet you'll get some hits (maybe search images for a graph).

The action spectrum of zooxanthllae is very broad because they contain a variety of types of photosynthetic pigments. They can absorb light from the red end of the spectrum (near 700 nm) to the near UV (about 380 nm) with similar efficiency. They absorb blue and blue-green the best, but they absorb all wavelengths well.

cj

 

[grupper]

Heres one link that I know of:
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/figsonly/206/22/4041

By the way I believe that zooxanthellae refers to any symbiotic algea that is hosted in a coral and not a the name of a specific species.

 

[bkiba]

grupper that is awesome, exactly what I'm looking for, thanks!

 

[MCsaxmaster]

Yeah, one of many good examples. Zooxanthellae refers to algae that live symbiotically with animals in general. Mostly they are dinoflagellates and some cyanobacteria. This occurs in cnidarians like corals and jellyfish, but also in some bivalves (tridacnids), many forams, sponges, radiolarians, etc. There are also other groups such as zoochlorellae that do the same, but these are algae are chlorates.

cj