When it comes to preserving the world’s coral reefs, what’s going on above the surface is as important as what’s going on below it, according to new research conducted at Penn State.
When it comes to preserving the world’s coral reefs, what’s going on above the surface is as important as what’s going on below it, according to new research conducted at Penn State.
The study, recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, analyzed the productivity and biodiversity in the world’s symbiotic coral communities and found that the maintenance of water optical quality in coral reefs is fundamental to protect coral biodiversity and prevent reef degradation.
“Coral reefs are one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth,” said Tomás López-Londoño, postdoctoral scholar at Penn State and lead author on the study. “To better understand that diversity, we looked at the role sunlight plays in the symbiotic relationship between coral and the algae that provide the oxygen for its survival. We found that underwater light intensity plays a critical role in the energy expended by the coral’s symbiotic algae to maintain its photosynthetic activity.”
The findings, although novel, are hardly a revelation, he explained. Science has long shown that sunlight is the major source of energy for virtually all biochemical reactions that sustain life on Earth, but sunlight’s impact had not yet been fully understood in coral, he said.
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