{"id":13061,"date":"2017-08-31T06:32:25","date_gmt":"2017-08-31T06:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=13061"},"modified":"2017-08-31T06:32:25","modified_gmt":"2017-08-31T06:32:25","slug":"helping-corals-cope-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/helping-corals-cope-pressure\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping corals to cope with pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"

When faced with high salinity, the tiny plant cells within coral tissue alter their metabolites to better cope with stress.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Cnidarians (corals and anemones) form the habitat for a vast diversity of reef fishes and other species.
Credit : \u00a9 2016 Anna Roik<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tiny plant cells, known as dinoflagellates, that live within coral tissue can help to regulate the osmotic pressure in corals to better cope with a highly saline environment. KAUST researchers suggest this may be one of the secrets of corals from the Red Sea and Persian\/Arabian Gulf, which are extremely tolerant of heat in extraordinarily salty waters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coral reefs have high biodiversity and economic value, yet these vital ecosystems are at risk as rising sea temperatures increase the frequency of local and global coral bleaching events. KAUST researchers are searching for strategies to help reduce future reef loss. \u201cThe effects of temperature and pH changes are intensely studied; however, the implications of climate-related salinity changes on corals have received little attention,\u201d explains PhD student Till R\u00f6thig, who led the paper with postdoctoral fellow Michael Ochsenk\u00fchn.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Bleached corals from Farasan Banks in the Red Sea. Coral bleaching\u2014a visible footprint of climate change\u2014occurs when stressed corals lose their dinoflagellate symbionts. What remains is the translucent polyp tissue showing the white coral skeleton. Bleaching is followed by the death of the corals and loss of fish populations and other reef species.
Credit : \u00a9 2016 Anna Roik<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The foundation of coral reefs is based on a symbiotic relationship of the coral animal with dinoflagellate Symbiodinium species, which provide energy to the coral in exchange for nutrients and carbon dioxide. The researchers found that free-living Symbiodinium cope with highly saline conditions by producing and accumulating compatible organic osmolytes (COOs) to adjust their osmotic pressure. Screening Symbiodinium cultures exposed to low, ambient and high levels of salinity revealed that the carbohydrate floridoside is universally present at high levels in algae and corals at high salinities.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe synthesis of COOs represents a quickly available and viable long-term solution to establish an osmotic equilibrium,\u201d explains R\u00f6thig. \u201cOur research demonstrates that the COO floridoside is used as a conserved osmolyte to help Symbiodinium and corals to osmoadapt to the saline conditions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Also important is that floridoside can help counter reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced through salinity stress, adds team leader, Christian Voolstra.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cROS are produced under salinity stress, but are also produced under heat stress where they can cause coral bleaching,\u201d explains Voolstra. \u201cThus, the same molecule that adjusts the osmotic equilibrium and protects the dinoflagellate and coral from stress from high salinity may inadvertently contribute to increased heat tolerance due to its ROS scavenging properties.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Knowing how salinity changes impact corals has important implications for management especially considering the effects of climate change,\u201d says R\u00f6thig. \u201cFor example, suggested transplantation of temperature-resilient corals from the Red Sea to other habitats may not confer the desired temperature resistance in a new, less saline environment. Conversely, increases in seawater salinities in some places may help corals to become more stress tolerant.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When faced with high salinity, the tiny plant cells within coral tissue alter their metabolites to better cope with stress. Tiny plant cells, known as dinoflagellates, that live within coral tissue can help to regulate the osmotic pressure in corals to better cope with a highly saline environment. KAUST researchers suggest this may be one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":13062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biology","category-research"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/4877.jpg",500,375,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/4877-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/4877-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/4877.jpg",500,375,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/4877.jpg",500,375,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/4877.jpg",500,375,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/4877.jpg",500,375,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/4877.jpg",500,375,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/4877.jpg",500,375,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/4877.jpg",500,375,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/4877.jpg",500,375,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/4877.jpg",500,375,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/4877.jpg",480,360,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/4877.jpg",87,65,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/4877.jpg",500,375,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/4877.jpg",96,72,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/4877.jpg",150,113,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Biology<\/a> Research<\/a>","tag_info":"Research","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}