Scientific articles
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2008
Photosynthetic Symbioses in Animals
Animals acquire photosynthetically-fixed carbon by forming symbioses with algae and cyanobacteria. These associations are widespread in the phyla Porifera (sponges) and Cnidaria (corals, sea anemones etc.) but otherwise uncommon or absent from animal phyla. It is suggested that one factor contributing to the distribution of animal symbioses is the morphologically-simple body plan of the Porifera and Cnidaria with a large surface area:volume relationship well suited to light capture by symbiotic algae in their tissues. Photosynthetic products are released from living symbiont cells to the animal host at substantial rates. Research with algal cells freshly isolated from the symbioses...
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2008
Coral Disease Handbook: Guidelines for Assessment, Monitoring & Management
Our research careers began in Discovery Bay, Jamaica, in the mid 1970s, where we both studied the behavior of coral reef organisms, rather than the corals themselves. At that time, living coral covered 70 percent of the bottom, and no one worried about the long term persistence of the reefs, even though the reefs were clearly impacted by people via severe overfishing. Quite simply, we took the reefs for granted. That sunny confidence turned out to be totally unfounded. In 1980, Hurricane Allen, a category five storm, struck and turned much of the reef into a rubble ground. However, reefs routinely get hit...
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2008
Field Manual for Investigating Coral Disease Outbreaks
Field Manual for Investigating Coral Disease Outbreaks.
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2008
Proceedings of the International Cyanide Detection Testing Workshop
Proceedings of the International Cyanide Detection Testing Workshop.
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2008
The shores of the small coral cay on Desroches Atoll (Amirante Islands, Seychelles) span a range of conditions from relatively sheltered (along the atoll lagoonal coast) to very exposed (facing the Indian Ocean). This appears in no way to affect the occurrence of Scaevola, which dominates the entire coastline, but the frequencies of the other characteristic but less widespread shoreline plant species (Casuarina, Cocos, Guettarda, Suriana and Heliotropium) show significant variation around the cay perimeter.
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2008
Traditional real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction protocols cannot be used accurately with symbiotic organisms unless the relative contribution of each symbiotic compartment to the total nucleic acid pool is known. A modified ‘universal reference gene’ protocol was created for reef-building corals and sea anemones, anthozoans that harbour endosymbiotic dinoflagellates belonging to the genus Symbiodinium. Gene expression values are first normalized to an RNA spike and then to a symbiont molecular proxy that represents the number of Symbiodinium cells extracted and present in the RNA. The latter is quantified using the number of genome copies of heat shock protein-70 (HSP70)...
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2007
Indonesia Tsunami Impacts in Aceh Provence and North Sumatra
The huge earthquake and resulting tsunami which occurred on December 26, 2004 off the west coast of Sumatra resulted in regionally variable patterns of impact in and around the Indian Ocean basin. The coast of Sumatra was close to the earthquake epicenter and was the first to be struck, within one hour of the event. A collaborative expedition between the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, Reef Check International and IUCN (World Conservation Union) to the northwest coast of Sumatra and Aceh Province, Indonesia, was conducted in October 2005....
