Abstract
Though seawater movement is among the important factors that maintain healthy conditions on coral reefs, little is known about the effects of seawater turbulence on the growth of coral primary polyps. We cultured aposymbiotic primary polyps of Acropora digitifera with and without seawater turbulence and investigated how seawater turbulence affected the physical characteristics of the polyp skeleton. Results showed that seawater turbulence increased the amount of skeletal carbonate and directly influenced calcification of coral hosts. Three-dimensional morphological measurements by X-ray micro-computed tomography revealed that seawater turbulence increased the thickness of the skeletal branches of polyps. Greater thickness of the skeletal branches and increased horizontal growth may significantly enhance survival of primary coral polyps during early life stages before the establishment of algal symbioses.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the Global Environment Research Fund of the Ministry of the Environment of Japan, including the Acidification Impact on Calcifiers Project (A-0804, A-1203) and the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (RF-1009). The work was partially supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI (21740387, 15H02813) and JSPS Fellowship Grant 17J09017. Data reported in this paper may be obtained by contacting the corresponding author (E-mail: iwasaki.shinya@jamstec.go.jp).
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Iwasaki, S., Suzuki, A., Iguchi, A. et al. Effect of seawater turbulence on formation of coral primary polyp skeletons. Coral Reefs 37, 939–944 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-018-1719-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-018-1719-5