Researchers have found a new way to identify heat-stressed corals, which scientists could help the coral species in need of protection from warming seawater linked to climate change, according to a study on directed by Rutgers.
“This is like a blood test to assess human health,” said lead author Debashish Bhattacharya, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers-New University Brunswick. “We can assess coral health by measuring the metabolites (chemicals created for metabolism) they produce and, ultimately, identifying the best interventions to make ensure the health of reefs Coral swells from warming waters are a continuing ecological disaster around the world, so we need to develop a sensitive environment.diagnostic signals that can be used to monitor reef health before start blowing to allow time for preemptive conservation efforts. “
Coral reefs provide fish with a habitat, nursery and spawning grounds, food for around 500 million people and their livelihoods, and coastal protection from storms and erosion. But global climate change threatens corals by warming ocean waters, leading to coral swelling and disease. Other threats to corals include sea level rise, more acidic oceans, unstable fishing, damage from vessels, invasive species, marine debris and tropical cyclones, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The study, published in the journal Advances in science, a study of how Hawaiian stony corals cope with heat stress, with the aim of identifying chemical (metabolite) stress signals. Heat stress can lead to the loss of algae that live in symbiosis with corals, leading to the appearance of whiteness (swelling) and, possibly, loss of reefs.
YouTube Video: How to Build a Coral Hospital
Scientists resisted heat Montipora capitata and heat sensitive Pocillopora acuta coral species to several weeks of warm seawater in tanks at the Hawai’i Institute of Marine Biology. They then examined the extracted metabolites and compared them with other corals that were not under the influence of heat.
“Our work identified, for the first time, a combination of new and known metabolites that could be used as diagnostic markers for heat stress in wild coral before or in the early stages of inflammation,” Bhattacharya said.
The scientists are confirming the results of their coral diagnosis in a much larger study and the results look promising. The scientists are also developing a “coral hospital” featuring a new lab-on-a-chip device, which could monitor coral health in the field through metabolite and protein signals.
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The work of the coral hospital is in collaboration with the Rutgers School of Engineering Professor Mehdi Javanmard and Xiaoyang Su, assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Medicine Robert Wood Johnson and director of the Rutgers Metabolomics Shared Facility at the Rutgers Cancer Institute in New York Jersey. Rutgers co-lead authors for the Hawaii study include doctoral student Amanda Williams and Eric N. Chiles, a research teaching expert at the Rutgers Cancer Institute in New Jersey. Other Rutgers co-authors include Jananan S. Pathmanathan, a postdoctoral fellow, and Dr. Su. Researchers at Rhode Island University and Stanford University contributed to the study.
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