Israeli Scientists Discover Why Soft Corals Have Unique Pulsating Motion
Posted on May 6, 2013
Israeli scientists have solved the 200 year old mystery about why soft corals have a unique pulsating motion. The photo and video show pulsating corals - Heteroxenia (Heteroxenia fuscescens) - in the coral reef of Eilat. The researchers determined that the reason for the pulsating is it helps with photosynthesis.
The researchers found, through a series of experiments, that the pulsation motions "augment a significant enhancement in the binding of carbon dioxide to the photosynthetic enzyme RuBisCo." The scientists say the ratio between photosynthesis to respiration in Heteroxenia is the highest ever measured in stony and non-pulsating soft corals.
Pulsation is energetically costly, so the scientists knew the coral had to be benefiting from the motion in some way. They also knew that the purpose of the motion was not to predate or feed. The scientists took many measurements of the coral in the water, but it was lab experiments that finally revealed the reason for the pulsating coral. The experiments showed that the net photosynthesis rate during pulsation was an order of magnitude higher than during the coral's resting, non-pulsating state.
The research was conducted by scientists from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. The results were published here in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
