New research published in the journal Coral Reefs revealed unexpectedly high growth rates for deep water photosynthetic corals.
The study, led by Samuel Kahng, affiliate graduate faculty in SOEST’s Department of Oceanography, alters the assumption that deep corals living on the brink of darkness grow extremely slowly.
Leptoseris is a group of zooxanthellate coral species which dominate the coral community near the deepest reaches of the sun’s light throughout the Indo-Pacific. Symbiotic microalgae (called zooxanthellae) live within the transparent tissues some coral—giving corals their primary color and providing the machinery for photosynthesis, and in turn, energy.
Deeper in the ocean, less light is available. At the lower end of their depth range, the sunlight available to the Leptoseris species examined in the recent study is less than 0.2% of surface light levels. Less light dictates a general trend of slower growth among species that rely on light for photosynthesis.
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