Source: Universit y of Queensland News
October 19, 2011

"Deep-reef coral grows more prosperously in very little sunlight researchers at The University of Queensland and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies have found.

The research team looked at coral populations from three habitats on coral reefs—the sheltered back reef (Back Reef), the wave-exposed top of the reef slope (Upper Slope) and the dimly lit deeps (Deep Slope).

There is little gene flow between the coral populations at each depth and the algal endosymbionts, which provide energy for the corals to survive, are genetically different across habitats.

The new research, published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, used genetic and photosynthetic analyses to demonstrate that these genetic differences reflect adaptations to the different environmental conditions encountered at different depths."

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