There's a new paper out all about the effects of increased heat on coral color (fluorescence) and dinoflagellate density. This is super interesting for us as keepers of acropora, since we always want our corals to be as colorful as possible. Brown boring SPS is never the goal in our reef tanks!
They found that has heat went up the amount of dinoflagellates in coral tissue also went up - meaning the coral gets more brown as temperature goes up. As temperatures raised from about 80 degrees fahrenheit to around 90 degrees corals first lost their fluorescent colors, then increased the amount of dinoflagellates in their tissue, then bleached out.
Dinoflagellates are a major source of nutrients for our corals, so the theory is that the stress of higher temperatures leads to a greater need for nutrients from the coral. Could keeping our tanks a little cooler help with our soft and stony coral coloration? This could even work for things like zoanthus! Temperature is not something we usually think all that much about, unless we are keeping things like C. tinkerii or other deep water fish that require cooler temperatures.
Check out the paper!
#scicomm
Santos JM, Shaw RW. 2019. Effects of increased heat on fluorescence and dinoflagellate density in the captive coral, Anthelia sp. PeerJ Preprints 7:e27566v1 doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprin...
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