Bleaching occurs when stress—usually heat—causes corals to expel the symbiotic algae that provide them with food. Coral can recover from this if conditions quickly return to their liking, but ...

Algae fortifies coral reefs in past and present Date: August 28, 2017 Source: University of Texas at Austin Summary: The Great Barrier Reef, and most other large reefs around the world, owe their ...

Published in the journal Science Advances, the study found strong evidence of this coral-algae relationship in fossilized coral skeletons dating back more than 210 million years to the late Triassic ...

Coral skeletons seem to protect young algae from herbivores that would otherwise keep it in check. The animals can’t get in all the crevices, so the algae gains a foothold from which to spread. This ...

Coral skeletons seem to protect young algae from herbivores that would otherwise keep it in check. The animals can't get in all the crevices, so the algae gains a foothold from which to spread.

Under stress, certain coral species put on displays to try to re-attract symbiotic algae they need to survive. By David Waldstein Breaking up is hard to do, and the measures some take to get their ...

Coral and its symbiotic algae Todd C. LaJeunesse Coral isn’t really a plant, an animal or a mineral. Instead, it’s more of a complex relationship between all three.

The mutually beneficial relationship between algae and modern corals -- which provides algae with shelter, gives coral reefs their colors and supplies both organisms with nutrients -- began more ...

In corals with symbiotes, however, levels of nitrogen-15 are slightly lower than usual due to chemical processes carried out by the algae. This signature is preserved in the coral’s skeleton, allowing ...

Algae grow faster than coral, so without the balancing effect of herbivory they can easily overrun a reef, preventing new corals from settling and shading out those colonies that do.