Caulastrea coral -HELP

[Jess_W]

Hi,

I am doing my dissertation at the moment- working on a coral health index. I used Caulastrea and Pocillopora.
I noticed that when I removed the Caulastrea from the water, it expelled water and became less plump. I am struggling now to find a reference to back this theory up and was wondering if anyone knew the mechanism by which Caulastrea polyps became plump. I would be very grateful if someone could point me in the right direction.

Thanks

Jess

 

[Reef Bass]

Welcome to Reef Central Jess!

It is very common for the fleshy part of stony coral polyps to inflate and deflate. This is particularly noticeable with LPS (Large Polyp Scleractinia), versus SPS (Small Polyp Scleractinia) to which Caulastrea and Pocillopora belong, simply because of the larger polyps.

As far as the mechanism by which this happens, I don't know. All the polyps have mouths, so it could be as simple as oral ingestion / expulsion. The polyp flesh could also be allowing fluid diffusion across its membranes using a concentration gradient to motivate it, although likely more of an active pumping mechanism would be necessary in the opposite direction. Perhaps physical contraction of the polyp motivates water expulsion.

Good luck with the dissertation!

 

[Jess_W]

Thank you

 

[houshmanzilli]

Thank you

Jess, some research done in the past has led to temperature of the water had influence in this mechanism

Good luck


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