BonsaiNut
Premium Member
For the more scientifically minded out there, I thought you might enjoy some recent work that highlights how presence (or absence) of zooxanthellae may influence the behavior of anemones in your tank. This is not intended to be a zooxanthellae "white paper" but rather some interesting reading that may lead you to other work, if you enjoy this kind of technical reading.
There has recently been a lot of research involving the ability of coral reefs to withstand the influences of global warming. This has led to a lot of work on the influences of elevated temperatures, increased UVR, coral "bleaching", and the importance of zooxanthellae as one of a number of protective mechanisms that creatures can use to mitigate these impacts.
First, there is an interesting paper from 1974 (by Vicki Buchsbaum Pearse) that discusses how anemones with healthy zooxanthellae populations behave differently than anemones without. In a nutshell, it helps to explain how some anemones (without any known photoreceptors), have a definitive day/night expansion/contraction cycle.
Jumping forward to the last few years, there has been a lot of research around the different types of zooxanthellae and their various biological characteristics. The current science is that zooxanthellae can be grouped into eight separate "clades" based upon having similar characteristics (insert a lot of complicated science here). Interestingly, one anemone species may harbor more than one type of zooxanthellae clade, and when moved from one environment to shallower or deeper one, the anemone can "shuffle" its zooxanthellae population to increase or decrease one clade so that its zooxanthellae population is better suited to the new environment.
Finally, an interesting paper on photoacclimation mechanisms (by Baraka Kuguru, Yair Achituv, David F. Gruber, and Dan Tchernov) which shows (among corallimorphs) how they use a number of different mechanisms (including movement, changing zooxanthellae concentrations, production of anti-oxidants, etc) in order to adapt to changing illumination and levels of UVR.
All of this is interesting (at least to me) in that it helps to explain some of the "light shock" and conditioning necessary when introducing anemones to a captive environment with artificial illumination. Additionally, it helps to explain some of the movement and expansion/contraction cycles seen by some anemones in our tanks, and the fact that anemones can stay put for long periods of time, then suddenly a simple change of lightbulb can trigger movement.
This is not intended to be an exhaustive overview - just some reading to trigger some "ah ha" moments when you look into your tank. Hope you enjoy.
There has recently been a lot of research involving the ability of coral reefs to withstand the influences of global warming. This has led to a lot of work on the influences of elevated temperatures, increased UVR, coral "bleaching", and the importance of zooxanthellae as one of a number of protective mechanisms that creatures can use to mitigate these impacts.
First, there is an interesting paper from 1974 (by Vicki Buchsbaum Pearse) that discusses how anemones with healthy zooxanthellae populations behave differently than anemones without. In a nutshell, it helps to explain how some anemones (without any known photoreceptors), have a definitive day/night expansion/contraction cycle.
Jumping forward to the last few years, there has been a lot of research around the different types of zooxanthellae and their various biological characteristics. The current science is that zooxanthellae can be grouped into eight separate "clades" based upon having similar characteristics (insert a lot of complicated science here). Interestingly, one anemone species may harbor more than one type of zooxanthellae clade, and when moved from one environment to shallower or deeper one, the anemone can "shuffle" its zooxanthellae population to increase or decrease one clade so that its zooxanthellae population is better suited to the new environment.
Finally, an interesting paper on photoacclimation mechanisms (by Baraka Kuguru, Yair Achituv, David F. Gruber, and Dan Tchernov) which shows (among corallimorphs) how they use a number of different mechanisms (including movement, changing zooxanthellae concentrations, production of anti-oxidants, etc) in order to adapt to changing illumination and levels of UVR.
All of this is interesting (at least to me) in that it helps to explain some of the "light shock" and conditioning necessary when introducing anemones to a captive environment with artificial illumination. Additionally, it helps to explain some of the movement and expansion/contraction cycles seen by some anemones in our tanks, and the fact that anemones can stay put for long periods of time, then suddenly a simple change of lightbulb can trigger movement.
This is not intended to be an exhaustive overview - just some reading to trigger some "ah ha" moments when you look into your tank. Hope you enjoy.
