New research by the University has found a mechanism as to how corals use their pink and purple hues as sunscreen to protect them against harmful sunlight.
Many reef corals need light to survive, as they benefit from sugars and lipids that are produced by their light-dependent symbiotic algae. However, in the shallow water of coral reefs, light levels are often higher than required by the corals, so paradoxically, the vital sunlight can become harmful for the algae and their hosts.
Apart from temperature, light stress is a major driver of coral bleaching – the loss of the symbiotic algae that represents a threat to coral reef survival.
Working in the Great Barrier Reef and under tightly controlled conditions in the Coral Reef Laboratory of the University, the team of researchers produced experimental evidence that the pink and purple chromoproteins can act as sunscreens for the symbiotic algae by removing parts of the light that might become otherwise harmful.
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