Hennige, Sebastian J., Smith, David J., Perkins, Rupert Gordon ![]() |
Abstract
Massive coral species play a key role in coral reef ecosystems, adding significantly to physical integrity, long term stability and reef biodiversity. This study coupled the assessment of the distribution and abundance of 4 dominant massive coral species, Diploastrea heliopora, Favia speciosa, F. matthaii and Porites lutea, with investigations into species-specific photoacclimatory responses within the Wakatobi Marine National Park of southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, to determine the potential of photoacclimation to be a driver of biological success. For this, rapid light curves using pulse amplitude modulated (PAM) chlorophyll a fluorescence techniques were employed with additional manipulations to circumvent differences of light quality and absorption between species and across environmental gradients. P. lutea was examined over a range of depths and sites to determine patterns of photoacclimation, and all 4 species were assessed at a single depth between sites for which long-term data for coral community structure and growth existed. Light availability was more highly constrained with depth than between sites; consequently, photoacclimation patterns for P. lutea appeared greater with depth than across environmental gradients. All 4 species were found to differentially modify the extent of non-photochemical quenching to maintain a constant photochemical operating efficiency (qP). Therefore, our results suggest that these massive corals photoacclimate to ensure a constant light-dependent rate of reduction of the plastoquinone pool across growth environments.
Item Type: | Article |
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Date Type: | Publication |
Status: | Published |
Schools: | Earth and Environmental Sciences |
Subjects: | Q Science > QE Geology |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | Chlorophyll a fluorescence ; Zooxanthellae ; PAM ; Photoacclimation ; Massive coral ; Indo-Pacific |
Publisher: | Inter-Research Science Center |
ISSN: | 0171-8630 |
Last Modified: | 18 Oct 2022 13:01 |
URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/12048 |
Citation Data
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