Coral polyps are constantly at war: "To survive and thrive in a space-limited environment, some corals have developed several specialized mechanisms for direct interaction for self-preservation and competition with other corals and other organisms for space in an ecosystem. The most common aggressive mechanisms include sweeper tentacles (detect and damage adjacent coral colonies), mesenterial filaments (enabling external digestion of neighboring colonies), and terpenoid compounds (coral chemical warfare). [d] These methods are not necessarily mutually exclusive as some species of corals employ each of these mechanisms in concert to prevent losing their space on the reef. [e] It has been estimated that, on the reef, between 22 and 38 percent of all coral colonies are engaged in battle or are within range to engage." coralreef.noaa.gov/aboutcorals/coral101/turfwars/
Posted on: Fri, 09 Aug 2013 17:15:29 +0000
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