Scientific articles
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2012
Factors contributing to the regional decline of Montastraea annularis (complex)
Bruckner A. (2012) Factors contributing to the regional decline of Montastraea annularis (complex). Proceedings of the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium. 5 pp
Over the last 15 years the massive framework coral, Montastraea annularis (complex) has experienced a rapid decline in abundance, size and condition, and on many reefs in the western Atlantic these species are no longer the dominant corals. Surveys conducted in Puerto Rico, the Cayman Islands, Bonaire, St. Kitts and Nevis, and the Bahamas show a similar die-off and replacement by other corals, aggressive invertebrates and macroalgae, although the timing of these events is variable. Widespread colony mortality has been triggered by mass bleaching events, with coral diseases emerging after corals began to recover from bleaching....
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2012
Baculogypsina sphaerulata (Parker and Jones, 1860) is a common large benthic foraminifer (LBF) and is an important calcifier in coral reef ecosystems. As there are concerns that global increasing temperatures may compromise the survival of this species, which forms a symbiotic relationship with the diatom Nitzschia sp., we investigated the response of the B. sphaerulata holobiont from the intertidal algal flats of Xiao Liu Chiu Island, Taiwan to heat shock. B. sphaerulata specimens were incubated at 26 (ambient), 28, 30, 32, or 34 °C for 5 h designed to simulate short pulses of elevated temperature that occur in situ from...
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2012
Lipid Bodies in Coral–Dinoflagellate Endosymbiosis: Proteomic and Ultrastructural Studies
Gastrodermal lipid bodies (LBs) are organelles involved in the regulation of the mutualistic endosymbiosis between reef-building corals and their dinoflagellate endosymbionts (genus Symbiodinium). As their molecular composition remains poorly defined, we herein describe the first gastrodermal LB proteome and examine in situ morphology of LBs in order to provide insight into their structure and function. After tissue separation of the tentacles of the stony coral Euphyllia glabrescens, buoyant LBs of the gastroderm encompassing a variety of sizes (0.5–4 mm in diameter) were isolated after two cycles of subcellular fractionation via stepwise sucrose gradient ultracentrifugation and detergent washing....
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2011
Diel rhythmicity of lipid-body formation in coral - Symbiodinium endosymbiosis
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2011
Due to the potential for increasing ocean temperatures to detrimentally impact reef-building corals, there is an urgent need to better understand not only the coral thermal stress response, but also natural variation in their sub-cellular composition. To address this issue, while simultaneously developing a molecular platform for studying one of the most common Taiwanese reef corals, Seriatopora hystrix, 1,092 cDNA clones were sequenced and characterized. Subsequently, RNA, DNA and protein were extracted sequentially from colonies exposed to elevated (30uC) temperature for 48 hours. From the RNA phase, a heat shock protein-70 (hsp70)-like gene, deemed hsp/c, was identified...
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2011
Lamellodiscus euzeti n. sp. (Monogenea:Diplectanidae) is described from the gills of two sparid fishes, Dentex canariensis (Steindachner) off Senegal and Ivory Coast and D. gibbosus (Rafinesque) off Senegal and Tunisia. The new species belongs to the "ignoratus" group, characterized by a lamellodisc with complete lamellae, a "lyre" shaped male copulatory organ type, and the "ignoratus" sensu stricto subgroup, characterized by a haptor with simple lateral dorsal bars. Lamellodiscus euzeti n. sp can be distinguished from all the congeneric species of the "ignoratus" subgroup by the presence of a prominent protuberance at the base of the curved part of the simple...
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2011
The differential attenuation of visible light (wavelength 400–700 nm) as it travels through the water column confounds the interpretation of remotely sensed imagery acquired over the sea floor. This can be addressed using depth-invariant processing techniques that ratio the radiance values of two wavebands. An evaluation of the performance of different waveband pairs for creating depth-invariant indices of the sea floor is presented. Twenty-eight different band pairs extracted from multispectral Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager (CASI) data are assessed for the creation of depth-invariant indices over the reef profile of Alphonse Atoll in the Seychelles (water depth 0–30 m)....
