Abstract
BOTH by the publication of his book, “Coral Reefs and Atolls”, and by a recent contribution to NATURE,1 Prof. J. Stanley Gardiner has materially added to the debt which all interested in problems of corals and of coral reefs already owe him. As a result, however, of work on the physiology of corals carried out during the course of the Great Barrier Reef Expedition, I am unable entirely to agree with Prof. Gardiner's conclusions in one important matter. He suggests that corals obtain supplies of carbohydrate from their contained zooxanthellæ, and also that the oxygen produced by the latter as a result of photosynthetic activity is of vital importance to the animals. My own conclusions as to the significance of the relationship between corals and zooxanthellæ are somewhat different, and, since this work—the result of the combined labours of Mrs. Yonge, Mr. A. G. Nicholls, and myself—is now largely completed, I am able to put them forward with confidence and no longer tentatively as in previous contributions to NATURE. 2,3,4 Moreover, it has proved necessary to publish this work in a series of six large reports, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and a short summary of the results obtained is, therefore, not without some justification.
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References
Gardiner, NATURE, 127, 857: 1931.
Yonge, NATURE, 123, 89; 1929.
Yonge, NATURE, 123, 765; 1929.
Yonge, NATURE, 124, 694; 1929.
Yonge, "Studies in the Physiology of Corals", I. Feeding Mechanisms and Food. Sci. Repts., G. Barrier Reef Expedition, Brit. Mus., 1, 13; 1930.
Yonge and Nicholls II, "Digestive Enzymes". Ibid., 1, 59; 1930.
Yonge, III . "Assimilation and Excretion". Ibid., 1, 83; 1931.
Yonge and Nicholls, IV . "The Structure, Distribution and Physiology of the Zooxanthellæ". Ibid., 1,135; 1931.
Yonge and Nicholls, V . "The Effect of Starvation in Light and in Darkness on the Relationship between Corals and Zooxanthellæ". Ibid., 1, 177; 1931.
Yonge, Yonge and Nicholls, VI . "The Relation between Respiration and the Production of Oxygen by Zooxanthellæ". Ibid., 1 (in preparation).
Keeble and Gamble, Quart. Jour. Micr. Sci., 51, 167; 1907.
Boschma, Proc. Akad. Wet. Amst., 27, 13; 1924.
Boschma, Biol. Bull., 49, 407; 1925.
Boschma, Proc. Akad. Wet. Amst., 29, 993; 1926.
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YONGE, C. The Significance of the Relationship between Corals and Zooxanthellæ. Nature 128, 309–311 (1931). https://doi.org/10.1038/128309a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/128309a0
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