Corals bleach under stress by expelling their algal symbionts. But why would a coral under stress get rid of its main source of energy? The community of coral scientists are beginning to point to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as the culprit, with many studies claiming that the dinoflagellate photosymbiont Symbiodinium produce an excess of ROS toxic to the coral host, so the coral host ‘kicks them out’. Additionally, the coral host may be producing excess ROS and storing them in their symbionts!
!! This is 14 pages, no need to read this in-depth. Please skim and speed read!! This reading is to review reactive oxygen species and gain some understanding for how they can be both negative and positive signals at different thresholds.
While you read think about a hypothesis for how ROS production relates to coral bleaching events. We will have an in-class brainstorming activity where we build a number of different hypotheses surrounding this question.
While you read think about a hypothesis for how ROS production relates to coral bleaching events. We will have an in-class brainstorming activity where we build a number of different hypotheses surrounding this question.
Be prepared to answer a quiz question on the major contribution your assigned researcher made!
In class we will cross-reference and find out how they are all related!