Trough leather coral
| Trough leather coral | ||||||||||||
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Several colonies of trough leather coral with retracted polyps |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Sarcophyton trocheliophorum | ||||||||||||
| Marenzeller , 1886 |
The trough leather coral ( Sarcophyton trocheliophorum ) is a species of coral from the family of leather corals (Alcyoniidae) widespread in the Red Sea and the tropical Indo-Pacific .
features
The coral forms large, fleshy colonies with a trunk and a folded, mushroom-like top that can reach a diameter of 60 centimeters. The colony consists of thousands of single dimorphic polyps . Long, tubular "autozooids" stretch over the top of the coral and are responsible for feeding. There are also "Siphozooids", which are smaller than the autozooids and which pump the water in and out so that the coral is stabilized by the internal water pressure. In addition, the corals have small calcified needles ( sclerite ) in their bodies as strengthening elements .
Way of life
It lives in extremely shallow water, on reef roofs, in lagoons and ebb pools. It is very insensitive to temperature fluctuations, changing salinity due to rainfall and intense solar radiation. Sarcophyton trocheliophorum lives in symbiosis with zooxanthellae , unicellular algae in the skin of coral polyps. The corals get most of the nutrients they need from the zooxanthellae. The zooxanthellae carry out photosynthesis and use up the carbon dioxide, which is converted into carbohydrates together with oxygen . The nutrients thus formed benefit the polyps' nutrition. The coral defends itself against algae and other growth by regularly forming a waxy layer on its surface, which after a while is repelled along with the growth. The copepod Paramoglus spathophorus lives on the coral .
literature
- Erhardt / Moosleitner: Mergus Sea Water Atlas Volume 2 , Mergus-Verlag, Melle 1997, ISBN 3-88244-112-7
