Abstract
Some morphological and functional characteristics of corals Stylophora pistillata and Acropora sp. growing in Red Sea on depths 2, 20, and 40 m, such as polyp number per surface colony, zooxanthellae cell diameter, density of zooxanthellae, photosynthetic (P) and respiration (R) rates were studied in dependence on irradiance. The influence of stress (damage of animal tissue portion) on O2-exchange of polyps was investigated, and an increase in R (from 10 to 50 %) was found. R of zooxanthellae cells in native corals was determined by three methods: from O2 consumption by isolated algal cells; using direct measurements of respiration of coral fragments with different zooxanthellae density; and from the ratio of algae and animal biomass per colony surface. Comparative analysis showed that R of zooxanthellae from large depths was about 30 % of the total polyp R.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 481-490 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Photosynthetica |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| State | Published - 1996 |
Keywords
- Acropora sp.
- O exchange
- Stylophora pistillata
- biomass
- cell density and diameter
- polyp