Does Coral Reef Change Color Patterns Throughout The Year?
Sunday, August 30th, 2009 at 11:06 am
I visited Hurghada on the shores of the Red Sea in Feb. of ‘98 and I could swear coral reef color patterns were a lot more vivid and varied than what I saw during my recent visit in September of ‘07. I am wondering if water tempearture changes have an effect on their colors, or what I saw is the result of erosion due to excessive snorkeling and scuba diving.
Category: Scuba Reef
Tags: Change, Color, Coral, Does, Patterns, Reef, Throughout, Year
August 30th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Most hard corals have “lodgers”. The coral start as a cell, feeds itself and grows, and eventually grows too big to feed itself. It then takes on these lodgers (plants called zooxanthelae (?spell), which use photosynthesis to produce carbs, feeding the coral. In return they get a house.
If the conditions change (temp, pollution, etc) the coral reacts by throwing out some or all of it’s lodgers. Coral being white calcium carbonate with translucent flesh, has no colour. The colour of the coral depends on the colour of it’s lodgers.
Hence, if conditions have changed then it is entirely possible that the colour has changed due to this.
Sorry that this is in baby talk, but it is the simplest way I can explain!!
Search for project aware (a charity) on google, they have loads of reef checking charts to show how healthy coral is!!