AUGUST 2022
IT'S GETTING COLD IN HERE...
Hey, Wavemakers!
So the water is getting extremely cold lately…It went down to 20 °C on our last coral planting dive. Ever wondered how the cold water would affect the reef stars?
Rising or even falling water temperatures can be very stressful for corals, especially the polyps, causing them to lose their algae. Because it is the algae that give color to the corals, this in turn would lead to coral bleaching. But this usually happens when the water is warmer than around 30 °C. The corals that we know and plant, in tropical water, do best in 23 °C to 29 °C. If the water is colder than that, it won’t affect the corals too much unless it's much lower than 10 °C. Thus, the cool water right now is not too bad for the corals.
It is found that exposure to cold water periods causes a physiological response akin to bleaching. Corals depend on algae for nutrition. Through photosynthesis, the algae produce sugars, which are passed on to the corals. However, cold water temperatures hinder the process of photosynthesis in the algae, leading to a potential net loss of carbon transferred from the algae to the coral. Thus, not only high temperatures, but also a period of cold temperatures can cause harm to the corals.
Coral studies on our site
Recently, we had an intern from the prestigious Bandung Institute of Technology studying biology come to work with us for 2 months. He studied the growth of the corals on our reef stars and came up with a very interesting methodology and research paper. Here are some of the graphs he made showing coral branching growth.
One interesting take away from these charts is that we learned that either the coral will form branches, or they will grow longer. It’s clear that they can only use their energy for one or the other, so when they are growing branches, then they can’t get longer.
Seems pretty obvious when you think about it, but I don’t think we’ve ever seen this proven in a scientific paper before! If you have heard of something like this, please reach out and let me know!
What was cool is that all the photos we have been taking for the monitoring of your reef stars can also be used for science!
Anyway, we reached a new record and planted 218 new reef stars this month! We are very excited to monitor this new batch and observe their growth.
Here’s a link to your corals for this month! I’m so happy that they are healthy and growing well! We would love it if you would share these photos with your family and friends and help us spread some awareness!
As of today, this is where we stand:
1,481
REEF STARS PLANTED
941.4
M² OF CORALS REGROWN
26,658
CORAL FRAGMENTS PLANTED
Till next month for another update on the growth of your corals!
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