Week 10 Quiz, Q5

[Mermade]

Eric,
Maybe I'm doing my usual trick of misinterpreting. I thought that Endolithic fungi were not deleterious to corals as in your lecture notes, "endolithic fungi associated with Ostreobium may invade coral polyps and cause the coral to form calcified cysts", I thought this mean't they were of no harm as they prevented Ostreobium entering the coral.
Also e. in Q5 again I thought Lithophagids was not really that harmful as in EIS pge 631, "not all detremential to the reef structure" and also I thought most only bored into dead corals.
Please excuse if I have taken the readings the wrong way but you said to keep asking questions.
Thanks, Tehlia.

 

[Eric Borneman]

Tehlia, yes, the coral does have to keep out the fungi....becuase it is invasive. While it is usally successful, the fungi, as mentioned in the statement, invades coral polyps. That's pretty derimental. So is the energy cost associated with keeping it out by forming the thickened calcium plates.

On Lithophagids, they don't harm reef structure because they become part of it...in other words, they don't just chew up calcium carbonate and let it drift away...they are calcium carbonate sturctures themselves. But, they do bore in living corals, too, and quite prolifically in some places. Densities can be astonishing. Sorry if that wasn't clear in the readings.