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You may not normally think about how corals smell or how the smell changes during heat stress. However, this is what researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), the University of Sydney and Southern Cross University set out to investigate on the Great Barrier Reef.
Each organism releases a distinct mixture of volatile gases that make up their smell and we are learning that these “smells” can tell us a lot about health. Some individual gases that make up the overall odor even have the ability to influence how an organism copes with stress, and once released from coral reefs, these gases can affect atmospheric processes.
Despite their importance, these volatile gases have received little attention in tropical coral reefs. This study is the first to explore the overall “smell” of healthy, stressed corals by identifying distinct chemical diversity.
The research, led by Dr Caitlin Lawson in the Climate Change Cluster at the UTS, found that among the coral species studied on Heron Island in the Southern Great Barrier Reef, the abundance and chemical diversity of their emissions of gases decreased significantly during the thermal stress experiments. The results are published in the journal Biology of global change.
Recent mass bleaching events, driven by heat stress, have largely caused a loss of 50% of the Great Barrier Reef corals over the past 25 years. Climate predictions suggest that some areas of the Great Barrier Reef may whiten again in 2021.
“Our findings provide the first insights into the range of gases produced by coral reef-forming corals and highlight a diverse array of compounds that can play potentially important, but previously unrecognized, roles in maintaining healthy reef functioning,” he said. said Dr. Lawson.
“Our results also reveal that heat stress dramatically reduces the chemical diversity, quantity and functional potential of these important compounds, which could have a further impact on the coral’s ability to cope with rising temperatures.”
Co-author, Dr Jean-Baptiste Raina, said he was surprised to discover how many different chemicals made up the “smell of these corals” when only a handful of compounds had previously been identified. He says the number “will continue to grow, the more we examine it, the more species we begin to investigate.”
Unlocking further the complexity and diversity of these reef gases will allow scientists to understand how they could silently drive the health and resilience of deteriorating coral reefs, Dr. Lawson said.
“We know that within terrestrial ecosystems, some of these compounds can help plants cope with drought conditions, for example, heat stress or insect attacks,” he said.
“I am really excited about the signs that could occur between different coral species, or if they have certain odors they will release that might attract grazing fish if there is too much algae. Is there a certain smell that indicates that corals are more vulnerable?
“With the increasing frequency of heat stress events – and bleaching is likely to repeat in early 2021 – understanding coral emissions is even more important as they could prove to be a key tool in our efforts to monitor and preserve reefs. coral “.
Senior author and leader of the Future Reefs Team at UTS, Associate Professor David Suggett says the discovery adds to the evidence that, just like humans, coral reefs rely on multiple forms of communication to stay healthy.
“The diversity of the reef is underpinned by images and sounds, and our work shows that smells also play many critical roles,” he said.
“The discovery of a loss of these odors under heat stress caused by warming oceans is further evidence that coral reefs will change as we know them unless we urgently address climate change.”
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